If I Had You
by BadLuckVixen13
Summary: It's almost time. Time to get the hell out of Lima for good and Kurt couldn't be happier, but who is this new...-Oh wow. Interesting things happen when twins are separated in Italy and charm American boys with European looks and mystery. Kurt/OC; Jesse/OC
1. At Last

Sitting on a toilet seat as Tina and Mercedes helped to clear away the slushie facial, Kurt growled on about Neanderthals and annoyances. His routine was screwed and he wondered if one day he would just be forced to wear on of those hideously unfashionable plastic ponchos to avoid his clothes being ruined for the day. There would be a day of reckoning he promised himself... and he hoped it would be before graduation. Four years of this hell hole, and he was ready to go somewhere where he didn't have to worry about the bad reputation he was accumulating for his father and the idiots that would stay here and clean his septic tank everytime he came back to visit. _Ah_, the goodness that his imagination brought forth. Sometimes he was too fabulous for even his imagination to handle, but then he would walk towards his locker and in bold, black, ugly letters would be there: FAG and he realized that he was still at McKinley, still at Lima and still suffering.

_Please, if there is anything called favor in the universe...can I please get a break this year._

Unfortunately, favor is not fair.

* * *

The manly noise over locker-speak never ceased to remind him of the last time he was on a football team. He almost turned back around with the memory of. Searching through the corridors of half-naked teenagers slapping each other with t-shirts and rough housing could never get old. Even in the military, the men rough-housed and slapped each other with wet towels, he guessed it was just a manly thing. A timeless experience that every man on any kind of team with a locker room had to go through. He just hoped he would have to break a teammates arm this time around.

_Where the hell was this Tanaka dude?_ He decided to follow the team as they headed outdoors. The coach is bound to be outside right?

"Alright team hustle up! After the interlude a couple years ago we've gone back to the same old routine of sucking to the point of no return! I want to see some improvement this year! If we loose to those deaf kids again, you'll all run so long you'll forget you had legs."

A hand went up behind Puck, and Tanaka looked up to see the face hovering over Puck's head. _Great._ Just what they needed another skinny lanky want-to-be football player. He needed muscle, a star player, a real player that could back up the defensive line and maybe even break through the other's offense... He needed someone who didn't suck as much. He'd hoped and prayed for speed and power, and he'd gotten it in Puck, Finn, and Karofsky but not nearly enough to matter. After Kurt left, they'd lost their kicker and had gone back to sucking after a brief stint in winning.

"This isn't class children, what is it?"

The tall boy pushed his way through the crowd politely enough and Tanaka stared for a moment. He was fucking _huge_, towering over him and taller than Finn. Silver-blue eyes that shifted in the sunlight tanned broad shoulders underneath the huge t-shirt he sported as he handed a sheet of paper to Tanaka and the rest of the team mummured between themselves. From the size of his clothing, he was either very buff or very fat... he didn't want to contemplate which one as he glanced down at the paper: Emiliano Romano.

"Oh, you're the new kid Figgins was talking about." He looked at the boy and hoped he was judging the book by its cover correctly. "Go change and we'll see what you can do."

He shrugged and headed back towards the locker room. Not like he didn't expect to have to get dressed. He grabbed a helmet, shoulder pads and his other gear after changing into his normal workout clothes of basketball shorts and a tank top. Pulling a jersey overhead he headed back outside as the team started warming up and headed towards Tanaka who waved him over.

"What position did you play?"

"I've played Line Backer, Running Back, Tight End, and Kicker."

He blinked once and looked up at the heavy accent coming from the boy's mouth. It was nowhere near Iowa. East coast? West coast?

"Italy," He supplied with a smile. "I get the question all the time. But what position will I be playing trying out for on your team?"

"We'll start you off with Kicker if you don't mind. Let's see what you've got."

Puck, Finn, and the rest of the team stopped to take a breather as the new kid stretched a bit and set up the kick post.

"Let's hope we don't get another, Hummel huh?" Karofsky asked making half the team laugh.

It had been four long years of high school and they were all ready to get out of the small town where there were the same faces to to punch in, the same slushie facials to give. It gets old after a while. Especially when they were the worst football team in the history of ever. God it _sucked_ to be them... that was until the new kid kicked. The football went zooming through the field post and ended up on the other side of the street and somehow they thought all was right with the world after three more kicks of the same distance. They gawked at disappointment on the boy's face as he rolled his shoulders and shifted the shoulder pads that seemed to be a little on the small side for him.

He wasn't really in to football, but since there was no _real_ football, tennis, swimming, or water polo team, he would have to make due with some form of physical activity to channel some of that pent up energy. That didn't mean he had to _suck_ at it. If he was going to be stuck to the hum-drum monotony of getting pushed around on the field, then he'd have to work back up into his former glory. Tanaka slapped his shoulder and said something about being the new kicker before practice picked up again. Running through drills he headed back inside after practice. The whole of practice no one had asked much about him as he changed and headed home. He had about six rooms to unpack in his family's house as a surprise for his Dads' coming home. When he arrived, he turned on the sounds of Nirvana and got to work. By the time his fathers' came in, the house was unpacked, everything was put away and dinner was under way.

"Had a good day, then?" Eric Logan asked coming into the kitchen as his spouse, Neil, came in behind him.

"I joined the football team," He replied turning off the stove. "Dinner's ready."

Neil set the table and Eric served. The congenial normal "how-was-your-day" talk ensued before Neil took care of the dishes and he headed upstairs to scrub the sweat off his skin and climb into bed. Surrounded by glow in the dark astronomy projection, band posters, and musical instruments, he sighed and went to sleep wondering what exactly this school had to offer other than a really bad American football team and weird teachers in tiny shorts.

* * *

The bell rang again early to start the day at Mount Carmel high and she glided towards her classroom.

_No cheerleaders to run into and please, **please**, **please** no one from Vocal Adrenaline_, she prayed.

Senior year had been somewhat better for Emiliana and she hoped it would stay that way, but she almost never got what she hoped for when it came to Mt. Carmel. The school had been a true test of patience, trust, and will because she really could have gotten herself kicked out of school by the number of times she'd been ready to rip someone's hair out, including her own. But that wouldn't have made things any better, it would have caused unnecessary stress and so she remained underneath the torture of Mt. Carmel students for the last four years.

Senior year had been better for her...that was until she entered the classroom, glasses on her face, hair under a baseball cap, slouchy clothing and all and some sticky substance was hurled at her. She figured it was either egg yolk or syrup and she looked into the laughing group as more of it was thrown at her and into the eyes of one Jesse St. James... The glare was unforgiving and he looked away as his friends continued to hurl things at her and she stood there not bothering to move... Not for them... not for their gratification. Not for _anyone_ anymore. When the laughing died down and the teacher looked up.

"Are you finished?"

They laughed and jeered as she glared at Jesse once more before heading out to go to the bathroom and change clothing. She was always well prepared for things like this...after all it had started sophomore year when it was obvious she wasn't interested in being popular, or a floozy. She didn't wear skirts, she wore pants...She wore her hats low, her hair wild, and with a generally unkempt appearance she was bullied and pushed around...While no one had ever put their hands on her...there were times when she wanted to scream the world and show what she was really capable of so maybe they'd think _thrice_ before thinking about touching her. She would have figured that putting a guys head through glass and landing him in the hospital for a few month would have taught them a lesson, but no. She guessed American teenagers needed bigger hints than normal.

_One more year..._ she chanted, slipping her Metallica shirt over her head and changing caps before heading to lunch. It took longer than usual to get the stuff out of her hair than usual but that didn't matter. It was a class that she could pass without paying attention: Spanish. She was fluent in it after all so what did she need the class for?

"Hey look at this!" She looked up as a girl from Vocal Adrenaline, brandishing her Vocal Adrenaline jacket, turned a tape on the large television in the corner of the lunch room to show a group at Internationals. It was old she could see that, but there was something else..._The voice._

_It couldn't be..._

She stood moving closer to the screen, her eyes glued to the flickering lights of stage as the team finished off their routine and her breath caught. Those eyes... that smile...everything about him was just as she remembered...She'd found him at last.


	2. New Gleek: New Adrenalist

Kurt ran outside to his baby and threw his bag into the front seat. There was no way in _hell_ he could be late today! Glee practice started in less than five minutes and he was in such a rush he was buckling his shoes and adjusting his hat while driving. What a pain in the ass. He'd been up too late watching clips of their last regionals competition to wake up to his alarm clock. Pulling up, he dodged the normal jock circle and headed in, barely skidding into the room and Mr. Schue looked up with a gracious smile.

"It's okay Kurt, you're on time."

He sighed a relief and headed towards his normal seat beside Mercedes and Tina. There had been a lot of changes since freshman year. Tina had stopped stuttering, Artie had gotten a new wheelchair for his amassing height, Mercedes had grown up and slimmed down much to everyone's surprise and it was a surprise that now half of the male population was all over her. Rachel was still annoying and Finn was still a virgin so not much change there. Puck and Quinn were actually getting along again while he flirted and fooled around with Santana on the side.

"Alright guys, we're going to do some Love this week."

"Love?" Mercedes asked, "Like Love Ballad?"

"Yeah... your job this week is to find a Love song that you like and showcases your talent the best, or the talent in your group. Depending on the group you might want to do it in groups."

Rachel raised her hand and the entire group sighed. Somethings just didn't change.

"Yes Rachel?"

"Does it matter what genre?"

He frowned, "I suppose not."

Kurt scoffed softly, maybe Finn and her getting together made her calm down a bit with all the divaness. He shook his head at the idea, Rachel was still as over the top as always and somewhere in between sophomore year and senior, he'd stopped competing with her. Not because he couldn't, but because he had more important things to worry about, like what college he was going to and how he was going to pay for it. Rachel, New Directions, and the Cheerios would have to take a back burner. He glanced over to Finn, while the boy still had a warm place in his heart, seeing him so close to Rachel was a huge turn off for him, not to mention they deserved each other. The diva and her stud, how classic. Then again he had been seeing them grow apart and wondered if it was just the initial rush of not being able to have what you wanted that made them so attracted to each other. He knew for a fact that Rachel and Jesse had not broken up yet making Rachel sort of a whore but you know popularity only went so far. He chuckled a little under his breath about that.

"We'll practice today after school if everyone's okay with that maybe an old one, we'll see."

The bell rang and they headed out towards their classes. Mercedes and Rachel had first period Spanish together with Mr. Schue so they all headed to the same room together. Ten minutes into "_Habla espanol_," the door opened with Principal Figgins and a taller boy that no one had ever seen before.

Long hair tied back and out of his face, cascaded down to the middle of his back and eyes that mocked a silver laced sea glanced around the room as Figgins explained the situation to Mr. Schue and the female population stared in fascination. It was almost as epic as Jesse appearing at the high school. Maybe a bit more since this one was much more gorgeous than most of the boys on campus. Okay, all but that wasn't the point. Figgins vacated and the boy shook hands with Mr. Schue.

"Well, we've got a new student it seems. I'll let him introduce himself."

"Emiliano Romano, my parents just retired from the military so we're finally back here to finish out my senior year."

Mercedes tilted her head and Rachel raised her hand.

"You have a question?"

"Where are you from? Your accent isn't exactly... American."

His teeth flashed bright white against tan skin with a humorless smile. "I'm Italian, my parents adopted me when I was ten."

Her eyes lit up finding another person just like her. Oh _brother_, that was the last thing we needed another Rachel-Finn fight a few months before competition season started.

"Is there anything else I should say before I sit down?" He asked looking back at Mr. Schue.

"You look... a little familiar..." Rachel started again, " Where have I seen you before?"

"I'm not sure... maybe if you gave me more of a hint what you were talking about?"

Mr. Schue frowned looking at him," She's right you are a little familiar..."

He blinked not sure which part they were talking about. Mr. Schue couldn't place it and neither could Rachel but with all the musical and otherwise random information rushing around their heads neither could cipher through it all and decided to forget about it for now.

"No matter, I'm sure it's just the name. Please have a seat next to... Mercedes."

He nodded and headed back to slide into the seat and the class resumed with lazy responses and broken Spanish from most of the class. He wanted to bludgeon himself at the moment for the school not accepting his language credits and getting him out of Spanish. Their accents were horrible and as a person fluent in Spanish, it was grating his nerves. The bell rang with a sigh of relief from him and he headed out the door attempting to find the locker that was supposed to be his. 13-35-13 and it popped open and shoved his books inside. Not like he needed to carry all of it, or any of it for gym. Were they swimming today or...?

After braiding his hair, he walked into the gym and met the infamous Sue Slyvester.

"Well if it isn't another pretty boy with ridiculous hair," she greeted. "Get a hair cut hippie."

He raised an eyebrow at her and tilted his head. "Are you referring to me?"

"Yes, you hippie with the long hair. Who are you anyway?"

"Emiliano Romano," he replied.

"Oh the new kid from Europe. Well if you think that you're going to get out of the treatment I give everyone else then you're wrong now get in line."

_Heavy with the burden of being an adult, she became an asshole..._

He wondered if all the teachers at McKinley were like this? He put his things on the bleachers and lined up between two girls that he could feel were staring at him. By the time P.E. was over, he wasn't sure if he hadn't been eye raped by a bunch of girls or was still being eye fucked by a few guys. Either way it was creeping him out and he decided that it would be better to just head to lunch without bothering to shower. Being eyed raped in the shower was the last thing he needed on his first day of classes. He opened his thermos just as Mercedes and two other girls sat down in front of him. He recognized two of them vaguely as he looked up from the lasagna he'd knicked from the refridergator that morning and blinked.

"Hello."

"Hi, I'm Rachel." The jewish girl that'd asked him about his accent spoke and he nodded in acknowledgement.

"This is Tina."

"Hello, Emiliano, nice to meet you."He shook hands with her across the table and felt eyes glaring into his back as three other trays slammed down around him.

"Yo, dude what are you doing sitting over here with the gleeks?" Puck asked.

"You're being a jerk Puck, not to mention you're technically a gleek too." Rachel said with that grating know-it-all tone as Finn sat down and Artie rolled to the table.

"What's a gleek and why does it matter?"

Everyone blinked, "The Glee club of course. The show choir."

An alarm went off in his head, _show choir_?

"Like Vocal Adrenaline?" He asked taking another bite.

"Yeah, but the Lima loser version." Puck replied with a laugh.

"Says a man on the worst football team in the state." Mercedes quipped and Emiliano chuckled.

"Yes our team does suck and I'm not sure what a Lima loser is but you are all pretty funny. So what's with this Glee thing. Are you guys any good?"

"I'll have you know that we've won Regionals twice since we started."

He nodded, "That's pretty good. Ever been to nationals?"

"No..."Rachel said as he closed his empty thermos and opened his gatorade.

"It's great, lots of lights, lots of cameras, lots of theatricality. It's like Broadway on steroids. Internationals is even crazier."

They blinked, "You've been to... Internationals?"

"You've been to nationals?" Rachel asked.

He blinked,"Yeah...I don't know if my teams made it again after I left but we went to Internationals every year I was there, but that was mainly because our director was insanely good."

They blinked and looked at each other as he finished up lunch and the bell rang for their next class. Before he knew it the monotonous day was over and he was getting ready to go home... that was until three people grabbed him by the arms and legs and carried him down the hallway. There was no malice in their actions but it was a little strange. He knew about high school hazing, but he'd never been _kidnapped_ before. From the feel of the people carrying him, at least one of them was a woman and the one holding his feet felt like men. One a lot shorter and had a smoother glide across the floor, almost like he was rolling. When he was finally set down, he was in a room he'd never noticed before in front of a collection of people that were all vaguely familiar. Finn, Puck, Tina (had been holding his arm), Artie( had grabbed his legs), Rachel (had his other arm) Mercedes, an effeminate boy, Matthew, Mike, and three Cheerios as he learned they were called. He would never understand why the cheerleaders would name themselves after a cereal.

"Okay... since this isn't a kidnapping attempt... can you tell me what's going on here?"

"Uhm... this isn't how we recruit..."

"I know! But he was... well-"

"Mr. Schue," Rachel cut in overbearing Mr. Schue and Tina's defense and protest. "Over the disgusting food of the lunchroom, we learned that Emiliano here was a memeber of an International champion show choir."

Somewhere in between Schue's surprise and everyone else he managed to stand as they looked at him. Eyes he'd felt before-questioning, disbelieving and stunned eyes.

"Is that true?"

He nodded," But I haven't done show choir in a while."

He blinked, "What have you been doing?"

"Well... I was in a few operas in Italy for a while but other than that-"

"OH MY GOD, I REMEMBER~!" Rachel exclaimed taking his hand and jumping up and down.

"I remember! I remember! You were that King in that opera and you were amazing~!"

He blinked, "I was a prince actually, but thanks." He said a bit nervously as she hugged him.

"Finally real star talent~" she murmured.

He blinked and pushed her off gently and put up his hands up in surrender, " Uhm that's great and all... and I'd really like to not be kidnapped again so-"

"Please Mr. Schue, let him audition~!" Rachel whined, "We can't lose anything by getting some more talent!"

"Would you like to?"

He blinked, "I guess, but I'm really rusty."

"Doesn't matter! You get in because you audition, now sit!"

He was forced into a chair everyone scrambled to take their seats as he frowned and tried to think.

"It's just part of the song, I can't seem to remember the rest of it..." He closed his eyes and breathed softly.

" _Everyone is searching for a place that can heal their sadness, loneliness, and close their open wounds. So... for you, that place is here. Don′t be afraid of it, don′t hesitate anymore, because I′ll protect you._

_My heart... is pained~.. oh -whoa-oh oh~... Don′t be afraid~... Even if it′s just momentarily, I′ll let you know my love~... You know... I'll let you know my love-ah~..._

_For anyone to be loved by someone, makes life in this world shine brighter than the sun. If it was me, I′d make your heart warm once more with eternal tenderness and love..._"

He wasn't sure if it was the fact his voice still echoed off the walls or their looks of utter shock freaked him out the most. He blinked a bit and looked up as Mr. Schue clapped him on his shoulder.

"Welcome to Glee," he said with a smile and he looked up a little confused as practice was technically over and Mr. Schue started handing him papers and Rachel stayed behind.

"How... did you get into the opera?" She asked curious as Mr. Schue continued handing him sheet music and C.D.s. He was glad he fixed his car before he came back to school or it would have been a real pain to get home with all of this.

"I worked at the base as an entertainer and got referred. The opera company liked me."

"Your parents... know opera people?"

"Well... I was pretty infamous in Italy so it wasn't that hard... but I guess sort of. Why do you ask?"

Her eyes gleamed with amazement and adoration which freaked him out to no end. The last thing he needed was to have an American _girl_ crushing on him. She followed him to his truck and he put the box of music in the front seat and climbed in.

"Do you want to be on Broadway?"

"Not really, singing is just one of those things I can do. I want to go into engineering or medicine like my Dad..."

She frowned at that and backed away as he started the car without a second glance at her and sped away away from the school. She turned back to find Finn waiting for her beside her locker and let him drive her home.

The next day was fairly uneventful with Mercedes flagging Emiliano down as he arrived to get his advice on a few runs.

"Higher or lower?"

"Both, they sound bettter right after one another." He smiled as she went through it and he nodded, "Sounds great."

"Have you really... been to Internationals?" Tina asked with an odd calm. He nodded.

"It's fun. You meet all types of people, compete for the top spot and there's really no animosity after the fact. Not to mention-"

"Emiliano~!"

Mercedes scoffed as Rachel came hustling over to them to tear him away from the group. He pulled away from her and turned back to them.

"You'd like it. People from countries that you've never heard of are there and great food and tons of talent jam packed. Not to mention the huge party after every competition."

"Internationals has a party?" Tina asked.

"Yep, every year." He turned around to look at her. "What is it Rachel?"

"I just wanted to know if you had a partner for this week's assignment?"

"Why does it matter? You've got Finn." Mercedes asked raising an eyebrow.

"It's fine but yeah I do, Mercedes, Tina, Artie, and Kurt."

They blinked and Rachel pouted, "Well I guess... I mean if that's what you want."

"Let's we meet up around lunch to choose a song," he said.

They nodded as the Rachel walked away and he headed towards the front doors.

"Would you leave me alone you Neanderthals~!"

"Shut up Kurt-"

He should have been used to this but suddenly he was falling into something warm and soft and there was a familiar voice above his head instead of the indistinct disgusting smell of the dumpster and his own blood.

"Alright you idiots, knock it off."

"You're protecting the-"

"Don't start with me Karofsky." Emiliano growled knowing what he was about to say. He'd heard all the time since he arrived in America and it wasn't making his opinion of this country any better. "He hasn't done anything to you, and I know you wish you could be as open with your sexuality as he is but that doesn't give you the right to harass him because you're more concerned with fleeting high school popularity."

He looked shocked, more shocked than when he realized two plus two isn't three. Kurt bit his lip as Emiliano helped him to his feet and steered him towards the group of glee kids and towards the choir room with Karofsky and parts of the football team shouting at him.

"Don't tell me you're a gleek, too? You've joined the hive of freaks have you?"

Kurt stayed silent as Emiliano helped him into a chair with Mercedes and Tina beside him. They should have been used to it but as far as they knew it only stopped at the dumpster diving and that was it. They had never punched him before or at least, he'd never told anyone they'd punch him before. It'd only happened a couple of times, it wasn't a big deal.

"I need you to stay still and tell me what happened." Emiliano said pressing gentle fingertips into Kurt's side earning Kurt's hiss of pain.

"Definitely bruised... you can take a bit of a beating, huh?" He smirked, full of humor.

"After four years of this hell, I should be able to withstand a little harassment."

He chuckled and checked Kurt's other side, " Seems like they only got part of you all bruised up. I'd tell you to go to the nurse but then you'd have to explain how this happened and that wouldn't be fun would it?"

Kurt shook his head and took the bottle of aspirin Emiliano handed him. "If you've eaten take two every four hours and get some rest when you get home."

He nodded as Emiliano took his seat, the rest of the club came in and Mr. Schue appeared.

"Alright team, who's been working on their routines as of late?"

Most of glee raised their hands except the group that was working together. Rachel sneered at them.

"What's wrong guys, haven't figured it out yet?"

"Rachel," Mr. Schue warned and turned to the group. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, we... just decided that we were working together this morning and haven't had a chance to collaborate." Mercedes said nervously.

"We're meeting up today at lunch." Emiliano supplied as the bell rang and Kurt almost tumbled out of his chair. "We'll let you know how it goes."

With that they walked out and headed to their first class period. Art, joy. Not only did it involve the Cheerios but the jocks were in it too. Kurt and Emiliano walked in and the room went silent as the class began. He was introduced and that was the end of it. He had a feeling that he would learn to love this class and it's teacher, Ms. Helene Sweeney.

"Today we'll be attempting to draw the human body, your partners is a person you're sitting with and I don't want any complaints. After the drawings are complete you will be painting them in any color you desire, just make sure you shading is correct. The final project for the term will be due three weeks from now."

Kurt sighed, "If your portrait turns out terrible, don't punch me."

He laughed," I wouldn't punch you Kurt. But if my portrait turns out horrible I might make yours worse."

Kurt blinked at his charming smile. Was he joking with him?

"You're really from Italy?"

"Born and raised for most of my life," he replied glancing at Kurt to start sketching.

"Don't you miss it?"

"Very much," he replied. "It's cold here and it's really hard for people not to look at you strange."

Kurt laughed, "I understand that."

He smiled over the canvas at him and Emiliano took that moment to capture the shape of his eyes and the dimensions of his face. Kurt of course used his own imagination to help him with the planes of Emiliano's face. He wasn't a bad sketch artist, no he was actually really good. He had only said that because it was very hard to capture a face that he appreciated... Finn's turned out to be a disaster and he realized then it wouldn't be a good idea to anything art related to love. Not a good idea.

Glancing at his work, it really wasn't going that bad... it was going... really well. Extremely well.

"You are not allowed to see your portrait until it is finished. There will be one more class for sketching, add in elements you'd think would compliment the picture and then we will begin painting. I suggest for our worse off artists to pick one color and paint it all in that one color rather than trying to match skin color."

Kurt smirked. What she really meant was those that were color blind. He looked over at Emiliano who seemed to be smudging the lines of his portrait and glancing at Kurt's face for reference. Kurt really wanted to take a peak but before he had the chance, it was time to go and the canvases were wrapped and put away. Heading towards the last period before lunch, his head was swimming with show tunes and -what an atrocious hairt cut. Anyway, the point was that he needed to sit down and think about the insanity that was hurdling his way in the form of one Rachel Barry. She grabbed his arm and pulled him around the corner.

"As easily whipped as Finn is," he started and pulled back and away. "I am not. What do you want?"

"You like Emiliano don't you?"

He raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at her and regarded her, "If I said yes would that make you angry?"

"I'm already angry."

"Then yes," just to spite her. "Yes I do like him."

He wasn't sure what gave him more pleasure the flush of anger on her face or the feeling that came with saying those words. He was never going to make the same mistake twice. Loving Finn had hurt him enough.

"Well you can't have him. Just like Finn," she sneered. "Just forget it. You're a boy remember?"

"And you're a whore. I'm sure you're getting somewhere."

She got up close to him and glared deep into his eyes, "Look Kurt, I respect you as a member of Glee. You're an important part of this team. But you and I both know that I am better than everyone on that team before Emiliano came. He's got more talent in his finger than you have in your entire being, and what I am saying is that you should let him go so that birds of a feather can flock together."

"Finn," he said with a snort. "Jesse?"

"Don't get me wrong," she smirked twirling her hair. "Jesse has talent and so does Finn, but not enough... not yet. I need to be put into the spotlight now, so why not date someone who's already been there?"

He raised an eyebrow and turned to walk away. He couldn't be bothered with her dreams, he had his own and she would get what was coming to her... he sort of wished it was by his hands. Heading to the lunch room he heard Mercedes' voice mixing with someone else's he'd never heard before.

"Fly higher to the gentle bolero~..."

He headed towards them to where Tina and Artie took over from their cool bossanova heading towards the lunchroom discussing the notes.

"We'll go lower I think if you want to go higher," Emiliano offered seeing him there and smiled.

"There you are Kurt, where were you, we were looking for you." Mercedes said.

"Oh... just... got held up a bit. What's up?"

He blinked and they continued towards the lunch room to grab lunch and head outside to discuss it. By the time lunch ended they'd figured out the song that would compensate all their voices and they were happy with it.

"Where'd you find that song Emiliano?"

"It's a song from Japan, translated," Emiliano said, "I learned it while I lived there."

Kurt blinked as they headed into the choir room after their free period together and took seats. Rachel and Finn presented that day some really old Ballad from a long time ago and as usual Rachel had most of the vocals. Kurt rolled his eyes at the stupidity of it all. He really hoped that whatever Rachel was offering was worth Finn's sac and dick screwed off and in her purse underneath her glittering pink cellphone. By the looks of Rachel, it didn't seem like it. But who knew, he was gay. What judge was he? They headed out and suddenly he realized it was Friday. They had the weekend and Mercedes popped the question first.

"Say, why don't we take you around town since you're new and all?"

He raised an eyebrow as they headed across the parking lot.

"I... guess." Emiliano started. " I mean I was a little hungry and going home at the moment won't get me food any faster. Sure, let's go."

Mercedes climbed into the back of Kurt's car and Artie and Tina waved goodbye, already having plans. He followed Kurt's SUV heading towards the shopping center. He didn't notice the blaring orange sign outside screaming "talent show" and "Broadway show tunes" but Emiliano did. He raised an eyebrow as he heard the familiar voice of one Rachel Barry.

He glanced at Mercedes and Kurt's rolled eyes as she finished up "Defying Gravity" and Emiliano disappeared and came back with a number pinned to his chest a dark 13.

"That was very good. Number 13, if you'd step up."

Emiliano headed up there and Kurt blinked. When had he signed up and how did he miss that? And when on Earth did he take his hair down?

"Kurt... look."

He turned to see a group of Vocal Adrenaline kids with earlier numbers on their chests. Emiliano was the last contestant. He really hoped that their new star really was a star...

The music started and Emiliano opened his eyes. "I had him!"

_Is he doing Sweeney Todd? _Kurt though as he turned violently on stage.

"His throat was there beneath my hand... No, I had him!"

Mercedes gulped beside him at the murderous deranged look in his eyes. As wonderful as his stage presence was... it was a little scary to see him fall so quickly into character. Especially since that character was a murderous barber.

"His throat was there and now he'll never come again."

_Easy now, hush love hush_. _I keep telling you,-_-

"_When?_!"

This may be some part of his gay nature, but the idea of a deranged man that sexy was extremely erotic to him. Emiliano screamed "Straight" but that didn't mean he wasn't sexy. Kurt was allowed to look wasn't he? He had eyes after all and if all of Mckinley realized that he was hot, then he was certainly allowed to agree.

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit  
And it's filled with people who are filled with shit  
And the vermin of the world inhabit it.  
But not for long...

We all deserve to die.  
And I'll never see Johanna  
No I'll never hug my girl to me - finished!"

To fear for their lives was never an everyday thing for the members of Vocal Adrenaline. Not with their amazing Booster club and dance routines, but the fear of God overwhelmed them as the rage of Emiliano's Sweeney Todd tore across the stage in some savage rage that was meant for Broadway. Who _was_ that kid?

"Alright! You sir, you sir," he pointed into the crowd with a sickening smile. "How about a _shave_?  
Come and ...visit... your _good friend_ Sweeney. You sir, too sir? Welcome to the grave. I _will _have vengeance... I _will _ have salvation~..."

Jesse looked over at Latonya who had the same look. They needed a talent like that one their team. Maybe if they recruited him, they'd finally regain their place at the top. Maybe they would finally be able to pull off a funk number with that much talent and that much passion on some impromptu song? Their mind boggled with the thought of what it would be like if he actually prepared for something. The song ended in standing ovations and of course Emiliano won, walking off with some newest version of the i-pod in his hands as Mercedes and Kurt headed off to find something decent to eat and poke around in one of the random shops.

"You're very talented..."

Emiliano blinked and turned around, stuffing his new 60 gig i-pod in his pocket to see the pretty boy that looked strangely familiar.

"You're Jesse right?"

He raised an eyebrow, "You know who I am?"

"I go to McKinley... not hard to hear about the evil bastard that apparently broke someone's heart."

He raised an eyebrow, "Mckinley?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Emiliano!" He turned.

"I'll see you guys at Regionals then." They watched him leave as he twisted his hair over his shoulder and headed to where Kurt and Mercedes were waiting. They headed towards where Mercedes and Kurt were waiting.

"We are... screwed." Tonya said and Jesse shook his head. "No. Not yet... Coach said she found us a secret weapon for regionals next month."

"I hope she's right."

They slid into high chairs at a small food booth that Kurt recommended and ordered.

"Were those kids from Mount Carmel?"

"I think so," Emiliano said wiping his mouth and shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"You're right. We're a power house of talent right now..."Mercedes said grinning.

"You...wouldn't transfer would you?" Kurt asked hesistantly.

"No," he said. "Too much of a hassle. I like it at McKinley and I doubt that has any type of suitable replacements."

_Oh_, how wrong he would find himself to be.

* * *

After their run in with New Directions' new talent, they made a plan to make practice an hour longer. Heading back to their auditorium, a sound they'd never heard before was blaring, echoing through the acoustics of the building.

"_ I know our love is a miracle... you ease the pain in me. Slowly and surely, I believe and_ _our love can~ be~- oh~... Oh~... whoa . Ah~... ah~... My~ ah~Ah~ oh-whoa-ah~_!"

The whole of vocal adrenaline rushed towards the stands where Shelby was sitting as the girl on stage vocalized for a whole two minutes in a seamless transition of emotion and passion before taking another breath to reach a high note that no one could have hit even with the extra breath. When she finally stopped and looked up at vocal adrenaline they recognized her... She'd been there for years as part of the lower class of people in the school: a loser, an outcast. Where the hell had she been when they were getting their ass kicked for the last year?

"Vocal Adrenaline, meet your new team member."

"It's nice to see all of you outside of the classroom."

"Since when could you sing?"Tonya asked a little more than annoyed at being one-upped by a transfer student. The girl only smiled and looked pointedly at Jesse.

_Here I am.  
_  
"I've always been able to sing," she answed a little bewildered at the question. "What made you think I couldn't?"

"You never _**DID**_!" She shouted storming up to the stage.

"I have a reason to... I haven't been anything relating to singing since I was ten years old...But I have a reason to now. So if you have a problem with it, I'll tell you that I'm only going to be here till regionals before we move."

"Move?"

"Yeah, we got a better house across in Lima." She said glancing at Jesse.

The smirk he sported made her heart flutter in anger and she really wished that she wouldn't make a fool of herself by punching him silly and getting kicked out of school when she was so close to the end. After all, he was still dating that girl Rachel from Glee, he was still an asshole and of course he was still Jesse.

_Back stabbin', manipulatin'..._

"It's about time you auditioned. Welcome to the team."

She nodded, with a joking professionalism before practice began, making sure to keep her distance or the very bad side of her would come out and he would end up a bloody mess on the floor. She concentrated her thoughts on the man she'd seen on the tape that spurred her to go to Shelby. She had seen _him_ last year on Broadway...and the tape from the year before at Internationals...If there was any chance of seeing _him_ again Vocal Adrenaline was it. And damn anyone that got in her way, even if it was her own anger.


	3. Almost Easy

Kurt was in a strangely good mood after Glee practice. The looks on everyone's faces when the group pulled off a perfectly tuned five part , acapella, foreign ballad ensemble in English made his day. He was suddenly beginning to like the idea of "Bolero" a lot more. He walked out of the choir room and down the hall to his next class with the novel idea of grabbing his chemistry textbook from his locker to do his homework when he got home.

Was that a-

The iceberg sliding down his face, into his clothes, and leaking into his sanity hit him like a rain on a sunny day: completely unexpected. It was the end of the day and now he had to go home sticky.

_Fucking perfect..._

There was a gasp and he turned seeing Emiliano throwing an empty slushie cup at Karofsky's blue and green slushie facial with a smirk. He blinked in surprise as the tall European came over to him with a smile. His heart throbbed a little as he marched towards him and Karofsky grumbled and growled about the stupid new kid and vowing revenge.

"You didn't have to..." Kurt started a little star struck. Even Finn hadn't gone to that extreme...no one , _no one_, had ever defended him that way.

"I did have to." He replied holding out a towel for him as Kurt continued to stare at him. "Let's get you cleaned up hm?"

He nodded without a word and was lead to the boy's bathroom. Kurt looked at his concentrated face with wonder as the blue coldness was soaked and washed off with minimal damage to his hair. Apparently the boy knew what he was doing and he wondered how he'd managed to become so proficient in cleaning up other people.

"What are you staring at?" His voice came out as a rumble to Kurt's ear and he gulped.

"I'm... just wondering why you're helping me?"

"Well... aren't you my friend? Why wouldn't I help you?"

He blinked and couldn't help but watch even more as Emiliano blotted the blue stickiness and replaced it with warm water around the corner of his shirt where it leaked down to his chest. His stomach tightened when his fingers brushed across his chest through his t-shirt and gulped as he wrung out the towel and smiled.

"Blue Stickiness removed. Let's get out of here."

He nodded and followed Emiliano, Cheerio practice didn't start for another week.

"Do you want a ride home? Looks like you walked."

Kurt nodded gratefully and climbed into Emiliano's comfortable black SUV. A Toyota Land Cruiser that seemed to be bigger than any of the other ones he'd seen. More than that, it was a stick shift and there was something sexy about him driving stick. No pun intended.

"Thank you..."

"No problem, you hungry?" He asked passing the edge of campus and heading towards the shopping center of town.

"A... little."

"Great," he announced. "I'd say food is a good pick-me-up after getting slushied and there's a celebration for success in order."

He couldn't help but agree as they pulled up and climbed out at a small restraunt. The waitress served them and he noticed something about Emiliano... he was totally straight. He had to be. Steak and potatoes? An SUV? Football team and rock and roll... he had to be. And just like with Finn, Rachel was right. The self-righteous little _bitch_.

"So... how long have you been in America?" Kurt said distracting himself from watching the other boy eat with a certain amount of militant class.

"About two years now. We lived in New York before moving here. Dad wanted us to move back to his hometown."

"Your... father is from Ohio? What about your mom?"

He blinked, "Oh...that's right. I didn't tell you. I'm adopted."

"Oh..." The only other adopted person he knew was Rachel. They were nothing a like, then again Rachel had just met her real mother so that doesn't count. He almost felt her pain at not knowing her mother for so long, as he'd lost his mother at a young age. That didn't make her any less of a self-righteous bitch if he empathized with her... even though her mother is down the road coaching a rival team.

"Did you... know your parents?"

"They died when I was ten," he replied with a straight face. "My sister and I got separated."

Kurt blinked and looked away, "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked."

"It's fine," he reassured taking another bite of his A1 sauce slathered steak.

It had been almost eight years since then, he had a loving family that would never replace the life he had but it was enough. He missed his parents... cried when he thought of them and the closed casket funeral...but he wasn't at a point in his life when having his real parents cause him psychological issues. He'd traveled the world and that was enough for him.

"You have a sister? Do you know where she is?"

"My twin sister actually," Emiliano said with a grin. "Emiliana...and no I haven't seen her since the accident."

"The accident?" Kurt asked.

"It was an assassination attempt that succeeded. We were heading towards Sicily for the summer and...there was a beeping underneath the hood while we were driving. Mom and Dad threw us out of the car just before it exploded. The last time I saw my sister... she was in a rushing river floating out to sea... and I wasn't strong enough to save her."

Kurt bit his lip. He hadn't meant to ask so much. He had only wanted to know more about him not make the ghosts of the past glitter in his eyes with unshed tears.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," he said. "This is part of getting to know each other isn't it?"

Kurt flushed much to his amusement and nodded continuing to eat the chicken dinner he'd ordered. Dinner faded into social conversation. Emiliano paid despite Kurt's protest and drove him home with a smile.

"See you tomorrow Kurt."

He nodded and waved shyly, heading inside. His Dad looked up at his entrance.

"Did you walk?"

"I got a ride from a friend after practice... we went to get something to eat."

He raised an eyebrow at his son's dreamy expression and figured it had to be a boy that took him home and it was probably a date. He blinked as Kurt disappeared down the stairs into his basement room. He sat back and prepared himself for the rest of the year before Kurt headed off to college. It was sure to be a doozy. In the small town of Lima, he never thought that he'd have to worry about Kurt bringing a guy home, but apparently he was wrong and would have to suck up the fear before Kurt got into college... He poured himself a drink and took a seat at the thought.

_Kathy, give me strength..._

Unsure of where all the time went, they were suddenly back in art class together setting up their stands across from each other and Kurt smiled at Emiliano in his loose wife-beater and open button up. Despite the fact that he had the body of the model and was disgracing it with the simple artists look... the clothes complimented him he guessed.

"What is it?" He asked curiously setting up his palette and turpentine.

"Nothing," Kurt replied with an icy look and set up his own materials and attempted to mix the tones of Emiliano's tanned face.

He wondered what else he was besides Italian. Maybe he was part African? Or something... he wasn't sure but he did realize what the implications of the raging butterflies in his stomach were and blinked again. He couldn't have gotten into Emiliano so quickly right? It's not as though Finn was anything more than a crush and there wasn't anyone else to piqued his interest before he came along. It had to be a sign. He was just doomed to like straight men and be a virgin for the rest of his lilfe, right? He sighed at the thought and shrugged, at least Emiliano wasn't creeped out by him. Te only solution for this would be to keep to himself, admit to and _control_ the growing emotions in him before it got out of hand. He sighed again.

"What are you sighing about?"

He looked up, startled and gazed straight into those blue-silver eyes and shook his head nervously, hoping that among everything else this boy was he wasn't a mind reader as well. That would ruin _everything_.

"Nothing, just went blank for a minute."

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. Why did it always feel like he could see right through him? Emiliano turned back to his painting without another word, mixing some blush red and blue. He wondered what his portrait would look like as his teacher came up behind Emiliano and raised an eyebrow.

"You shouldn't be in this class," she commented before moving on and he wondered what she meant by that.

Class ended, and before they knew it they were back at Glee with Rachel gushing, Finn looking uncomfortable and everyone else generally annoyed.

"Alright guys we're going to pick it up where we left off and head home."

They lined up. To the left, right, left, right, twirl, twirl, twirl, and stop. Repeat~! Between Rachel's whining, the shuffle of feet and the rehearsal music he was surprised that he hadn't heard Emiliano's voice all throughout practice. Over the years he'd perfected a perfect pitch and sensitive hearing, Rachel was off, Mercedes wasn't singing and neither was most of the group. Talk about a down team morale.

"Just stop!" Rachel screeched whirling on the group. "Why aren't you all singing? With all of us, I can only hear me."

"Did you take into acccount that you sing the loudest and the most off key?" Tina murmured at Kurt's side and Emiliano grinned to hold back laughter.

She was right after all. Perfect pitch or not, that didn't mean she didn't have off moments.

"I resent that-"

"You resemble that," Kurt countered and crossed his arms. "Come off it Berry, we get it you think you're the best. But you're not and frankly, I'm sick of you acting like you are and looking down at us just because we don't plan on living our lives through our voice. We've taken three years of your bullshit, and personally I'm tired of it."

Mercedes blinked and Rachel flushed.

"You're only jealous because you aren't a girl."

He blinked once and raised an eyebrow as the entire room went silent and he stepped forward, everyone else took a step back. Oh _shit_. Mr. Schue almost stepped in thinking that the taller and more filled out Kurt would deck her in the face, or worse in the throat... He couldn't lose his star singer... or one of them. Not to mention he was pretty sure that Kurt would have knocked her unconcious for much longer than a few weeks. Emiliano watched in interest and wondered if this was an every practice occurrence.

"I have never, once, wanted to be a girl. I'm gay, there's a difference. And just because you're dating the quarterback-or whatever Finn is this year- does not make you popular. Actually it makes you both look like even more of freaks than you are. Congratulations, you brought someone else down with you. Furthermore, if you don't get your bony, grandma-toddler, dressing ass out of my face I will punch you in the throat. Understand?"

Mercedes snickered as he went back to his spot.

"Let's continue shall we?"

Rachel stormed out, Finn followed behind her, and practice went on. Artie was right, the more times she did that the less effective it was and after three years, no one had any issues carrying on without her and shifting the lead role to Tina, Mercedes, or Kurt for the day. He checked his watch and grabbed his bag. Cheerios practice, where he was actually appreciated, was calling.

"Kurt, I want to talk to you before you leave the building."

He rolled his eyes and sighed. He had walked to school today because his truck had been hit and his Dad was working late. He looked back at Mercedes to see if he could get a ride but met eyes with Emiliano who was heading out as well. He nodded with a smile and Puck followed behind them. Apparently there was football practice too, which meant that they would be outside in Ohio heat. He looked down at his uniform and sighed. You'd think that he wouldn't have to put up with Sue Sylvester if the school had respected him more.

There was a jock with a slushie and the intent gleam of a facial. He stilled himself for the icy embrace and gasped when he was spun out of the way and the slushie splashed across the ground.

"I thought I told you to knock it off," Emiliano spoke from above him as Kurt realized that everything was sideways.

The poor freshman football player scurried away in fear as Emiliano looked down at him with a smile.

"You alright?" He asked.

He nodded and pulled him to his feet. He blinked.

"Thanks... again."

He nodded and they headed towards the field. The football team doing runs and the cheerleaders were assembling on the other side which was a surprising thing to see Sue not out there yet. They separated Emiliano heading towards the locker room and Kurt heading towards the field.

"I hear you're tapping the fag," Karofsky grinned as he came in.

Emiliano raised an eyebrow at the crude remark and blinked. "I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"Oh come on, you've got to be tapping somebody on Homo Explosion." Azimo taunted beside him and he raised an eyebrow at the two.

"Finn's with that big nosed chick, Puck with Miss Chastity... who's your source on Homo explosion?"

"Are you saying the only reason I would have joined New Directions is because I'm having sex with one of the members? It can't just be because I wanted to, huh?"

They blinked as he pulled on his shoulder pads and headed outside to start up practice. The rest of the team followed suit behind him and he cast a curious glance over to where the cheerleading squad was practicing and Kurt was flying through the air. He shrugged and lined up playing Line Backer for practice and Kicker later. Practice went smoothly and when he emerged from the locker room covered in sweat and dirt and in some gym clothes, Rachel leaned against the wall as Kurt came down the hallway.

"Emiliano, I was wondering if you could tell me more about your career... and uhm autogrpah this C.D. for me?"

He blinked recognizing it as his first Broadway play and he was pretty sure that she had his opera appearance as well. He did her a favor and signed the C.D. and the case before heading towards Kurt who waited for him.

"Getting onto broadway is more about your selling points. The more you have the easier it is. It's not just your voice, it's your face so you have to pick parts that fit your aesthetics."

Kurt looked at Rachel in glancing and Rachel glared back as they followed Emiliano to the parking lot.

"Uhm, Kurt," Rachel stated. "Why are you following us? Aren't you supposed to be talking with Mr. Schuester."

" Mr. Schue can bite me and actually it's you who's following," Kurt said. "He's giving me a ride home."

Emilian nodded unlocking his SUV and throwing his bag into the back. "We live across the street from each other so it makes more sense for us to ride together. Besides there was something wrong with Kurt's transmission this morning, otherwise I would have let him drive."

"You drive stick?" She asked peering in through the window.

"Yes, do you need a ride Rachel? Where do you live?"

"I thought you were getting a ride with Finn." Kurt said opening his book of music that Sue was considering this year. He needed to learn most of them if he didn't know them already.

"No, Finn went to work... so I am out of a ride..."

"Hop in, " Emiliano said with a smile and Rachel squealed climbing into the back with her rolling backpack. Kurt stifled a grunt of annoyance as she continued to talk the whole way to her house and got out with that cheery, "I'll see you tomorrow Emiliano." and a sneer in Kurt's direction.

"You don't like her very much do you?"

"Was I that obvious?"

Emiliano chuckled and pulled out of the driveway heading towards their side of Lima.

"Are you hungry?"

Kurt nodded, "Yeah,practice was a bitch."

"You want to get something to eat?"

"Okay."There wasn't much else to say he supposed as he pullled off towards a fast food shop an

Emiliano hummed alongside him. In his opinion they made the best burgers in town and he had almost figured out what they add to the sauce to make it taste so good.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked softly.

Emiliano hummed questioningly as they pulled up to the parking lot and Kurt didn't move to get out.

"What is it?"

"You're acting all nice to me and I don't understand why!"

Emiliano blinked and smiled as Kurt turned with a fear and a sort of hope in his eyes that would have scared him if he didn't know it was coming. He'd known it from the moment that he'd singled Kurt out and decided to make his move.

"You're a jock! Social heirarchy says you should be throwing me in the dumpster with the rest of the football team! Not to mention you're acting all nice to me, Mercedes, and everyone else. We're the freaks of the school, hell you're even being nice to Rachel and she's trying to jump you! You've got the entire cheerleading squad drooling over you and yet you're taking me, the gay boy, to dinner. What are you trying to accomplish by doing this? Did Karofsky tell you to be nice to me so you can humiliate me? Find out how I think? Am I some type of psycological experiment now? Where is the punch line to this joke?"

Emiliano blinked and watched Kurt calm down before speaking, " _Bel regazzo,con tanto talento ma non vista. Perché devo avere un motivo ulteriore per essere bello? Mi vuoi dire nulla di male."_

The flush that overtook his face made Emiliano smile even more and open his door to get out.

"I hate Karofsky and I'm nice to everyone. Even when I hate them," He said and walked around to open Kurt's door. "Do you want to stay and I'll order food or...?"

"Why are you doing this?" Kurt asked amazed with his smile. "And what did you say to me?"

"I'll tell you one day. What would you like?"

"Cheeseburger, fries, chocolate milkshake."

He raised an eyebrow, "Being daring today are we? I'll be back."

He disappeared into the tiny shop and watching the back of his head disappear into the shop he couldn't help but question his motives. Everything didn't fit. He was nice to Kurt, he was on the football team. He was in Glee, but everyone wanted to fuck him (boys and girls alike more than likely). He was sexier than sex and Puck combined, but he was hanging out with the gay kid. It didn't make sense... Maybe it was a European thing... He'd never met a European before so maybe it was a part of their culture.

He came back with bags that smelled of spicy fries and Moe's secret sauce. He deposited most of the food on the console between them and slid the shakes into the cupholders as he pulled off and Kurt started eating taking a few moments to chew and think about what he wanted to say next.

"You're not going to tell me are you? Why you're doing this?" Kurt asked from his side and Emiliano chuckled stealing a few fries from Kurt's bag and placing them in his mouth.

"You'll figure it out."

"You stole my fries."

Emiliano grinned and opened his burger heading towards the park, "I know. They're pretty good."

Kurt almost pouted but huffed instead and continued eating licking the sauce off his fingers.

Emiliano raised an eyebrow at the action and smiled, "Guilty pleasure?"

Kurt nodded shyly. "Don't tell Slyvester, I'm supposed to be losing ten pounds."

"Your secret's safe with me," he said assuringly. "Are you going to be head cheerleader this year?"

He shrugged, "Probably not."

Emiliano laughed finishing off his burger and fries and capturing the rest of Kurt's fries in payment for the ride home and food.

"Thanks... you're... a good guy I guess." Kurt smiled as they pulled up.

"There's no guess," he said. "I am a good idea. And when you figure that out It'll be too late."

Kurt raised his eyebrow and turned back," Too late for what? And what do you mean by a _good idea?_"

Emiliano shook his head and watched him get out with a soft smile, "It's nothing. See you later Kurt."

He nodded and headed across the street. Emiliano sighed at the helplessness of it. How much more obvious did he have to be to get Kurt to date him? Was he not being obvious enough? He thought his obvious attraction to the male soprano stuck out like a sore thumb.

* * *

"Emiliana, this is not a free for all follow the choreography!"

She stopped mid twirl and huffed trying it again, re-adjusting her gigantic t-shirt around her and breathing out. She didn't want to do this, it was too stiff. If she was going to dance again, damn it she wanted to feel alive, not couped up in some cage.

"You're doing it wrong!" Tonya complained and glared at her.

"Fine," she hissed and took it from the top.

Practice ended and Emiliana grabbed her bag to leave, pulling her headset on and dancing out the door to some song none of them knew. The routine required complete control of emotion and a single appearance, a unity, and Emiliana was one for soul, passion, and individuality. She stuck out like a sore thumb. They knew that, she knew that, yet three days into practicing she still hadn't quit. Jesse stopped her at her locker to question her.

"Why is it so difficult for you?" He asked. "We haven't even gotten to the tough part yet."

She didn't respond but closed her her locker and turned to leave. He deserved it, he knew but he'd hope that just maybe...

"Why are you being so difficult? I'm trying to talk to you!"

She looked at him and turned away, heading away from their spot and he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Why won't you talk to me? You won't even listen!"

"I don't listen to back-stabbers," she said. "There's nothing you could say to make it seem any different. Friends... don't let people pick on you... They don't join in and jeer when you're having a hard time. They don't open old wounds, and they definitely don't turn their backs on each other. Fuck you St. James. You're dead to me and the minute I move, I don't want to see you anymore."

She walked away from him then and he huffed. Was there much else he could do until she understood what she would have to go through in order to become part of the team? As with any elite team there is an initiation... and she happened to be his. He slammed a hand into the locker and his phone rang with a text. It was from Rachel telling him that she had a late Glee practice so she'd have to cancel their date. He wasn't really surprised when he realized how much he didn't care about it. What he did care about was the woman who he'd betrayed and refused to speak to him.

Emiliana couldn't give a damn.

Emiliana arrived home. The quiet place she'd learned to love since she arrived and would soon be leaving. The smell of spaghetti sauce echoed through the house and she peaked into the kitchen to see her adoptive mother trying her hand at spaghetti and smiled. The woman was kind, and really trying to do everything she could to make her experience in America the best possible until she was able to find her brother and head back to Italy... To see their parents graves and pay their respects, to get away from the memories of her life here in America... God she wanted to go back to Italy and see the shoreline, maybe go to Greece for a few weeks and visit long lost family...

"A bit of sugar takes away the tanginess," she said softly and the woman whirled with a nervous smile.

"I'm not very good at surprises am I?"

She laughed, "It's the thought that counts... Go on and get ready for work. I'll have this done for you before you leave."

She smiled and nodded while Emiliana took her place at the stove and turning to fill the containers that had been set out with sauce and pasta.

No more than two hours down the road, Emiliano was doing the same thing.

"Alright Dad, give me that. You fiddling with that is bothering me to no end. Go get dressed for your shift and I'll pack you a lunch."

Niel nodded and headed out as Emiliano set out eight containers meant for the doctoring pair as they got dressed up stairs and ladled out servings of spaghetti sauce, noodles, baked garlic breadsticks and packed them away in separate lunch coolers. He included their choice of drinks and Niel's pain medication for his shoulder as they came downstairs.

"Don't stay up too late son," they called and headed out. He waved them goodbye as Burt pulled up into the driveway and headed inside where Kurt left him a wrapped plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and some vegetable he would never remember the name of. It was tasty but he would never tell Kurt that.

The next day began in normalcy... some what. Emiliana arrived at school and was almost suspended before second period because of Jesse's incessant following her and Kurt was pretty sure that Emiliano had some plan that included him before lunch started. Rachel was still seething about Kurt's speech on her annoyance and avoided the Glee table at all costs. She chose to sit with the jocks and handle getting slushied.

"Don't you think we should help her?" Emiliano asked as she headed to the bathroom, wiping the sticky mess out of her eyes.

Kurt rolled his eyes, "You're too nice for your own good. Every time we attempt to help her, she goes all "I'm a diva" on us. I'm not doing it."

Emiliano blinked and got out of his chair following Rachel when he caught up with her, he handed her a towel and shampoo telling her to soak the color out of her shirt and dry it before heading back to the cafeteria where Finn was heading out to help her.

Kurt shrugged as Emiliano came back to his seat and the jock table exploded with laughter, didn't really matter. They weren't slushying him. Slyvester was vying for Mercedes to return to the Cheerios before they started preparing for Nationals. At the moment it didn't matter with Emiliano pressed up against Kurt's side from the population of the Glee table. He had _bigger _things on his mind like what Emiliano looked like without a shirt- or any type of clothing.

"Could I ask why you keep your hair so long?" Quinn asked, "You've been here for a week or so and we hardly know anything about you... Like where were you before this?"

Emiliano blinked, "Before coming back to the states we were in Korea for a while and my hair? It's a family thing."

"Like a religion?"

"Not really... It's just that my dad kept his hair long... and never cut it. I don't know... I guess I'm just so used to it that I've never felt like cutting it."

"Oh... do you have any siblings?" Mercedes asked.

"A twin sister...I'm not sure where she is... but she's alive somewhere."

Artie blinked and the table was extremely sober for a moment. Emiliana smiled the sadness away and continued the conversation. Soon the thoughts drifted to the back of their minds and that was enough for now. After all he hadn't really been there long enough for them to question him about every detail of his life. Kurt glanced over at him as Emiliano laughed at something Tina said and finished off the rest of his lunch...He wondered what his parents were like and Emiliano smirked inwardly, Kurt was staring at him and if he turned too soon, he'd look away. When he did, their eyes met for that brief moment of desire before Kurt stammered and looked away.

"... What do you think Kurt?"

He blinked in confusion, looking at Mercedes.

"I'm... sorry... I just remembered something I have to do... I'll see you later." He got out of his seat and stumbled away from the table, high tailing it out of the lunch room.

"Hm... I wonder what's wrong with him?"

Emiliano shrugged, but smirked a little. He knew what was wrong and knew how much longer he'd have to wait it out before he could make his real move.


	4. History

For the first few weeks, Emiliano had gone missing on random days. It was another one of those days that made the transfer senior seem like a dream. He was absent again for some reason or another and Kurt dodged slushie left and right. He didn't need that at the moment. He was already on edge and with Sectionals in a week? Hah~! He wasn't exactly the most sane person between

"That's odd where's Emiliano?" Mercedes asked as he made it to his locker.

"I haven't seen him."

She pouted, "Do you have his number?"

He flushed, "No... why would I? We barely know the guy."

"That doesn't mean anything... I just thought since you two seem to be together a lot... that you'd have his number by now."

He flushed and sighed, "'Cede, he's so straight it scares me."

"Did he tell you that?"

"No, but you have to admit..."

She nodded in understanding and sighed, "You like him right? Is this going to be another Finn Hudson case?"

He blinked," I won't let it."

"Seems like I'm gonna have to slap you eventually, white boy. Look Kurt, you're my best friend... I just don't want you getting hurt okay?"

He nodded and gratitude and headed to their next class together. The painfully empty seat behind him haunted him for the rest of the day and he was itching for a reason to see Emiliano. Luckily for him, Mr. Schue picked him for the trip to Emiliano's house to drop off the music they went over in class.

"I can trust you to do it can't I, Kurt?"

"I object!" Rachel screeched hurrying up to the piano to attempt to take the package for Emiliano out of his hands.

"Out of all of us, Kurt isn't exactly the best singer. I should be the one to help Emiliano."

He blinked with no remorse and turned on the girl, "One: get away from me before I forget my manners."

She stepped back.

"Two: you don't know where he lives. Three: He's a broadway star, I think he can handle a few notes. Four: I am the best dancer compared to you Miss Two-Left-Feet. Five: If you don't get off his jock, then I'm sure he'll push you off, not to mention you are horrible teacher. This concludes my telling you off for the moment, go sit down Grandma toddler."

Her jaw dropped and the entire Glee club gasped as she stormed out of the room and Mr. Schue looked at him disapprovingly. Mercedes burst into laughter and clapped, she never thought spending so much time with him would teach him some slang but it happened at last.

"I'll get this to him. I'm sure he won't need much help."

With that, he picked up his bag and headed outside. In honor of his learned boldness, Puck gave him a ride home with a "Damn Hummel, I didn't know you had it in you" and drove off. He headed across the street and rung the doorbell.

_I won't be nervous. He's a team member. He's straight! And he's totally not into me. He is of limits he is- goddamn he created sex..._

The door opened and his mind went blank as he was staring at a very tanned, very sexy male chest and gulped before looking up hesitantly. Emiliano's eyes smiled down at him with a towel on his head and he couldn't help but chase the droplets of water down his face and over his shoulders.

"Uh... Uhm..."

"What brings you to my doorstep Kurt?" He asked rubbing his hair dry and hiding the smirk that was creeping on his face as Kurt offered up the package in lieu of himself and hid behind it.

"I-I- Mr. Schue told me to drop this off and make sure you were alright."

He lifted the package from the smaller boy's hands and stepped aside to allow the boy inside. Kurt stepped forward hesitantly as the door closed behind him. The foyer was a long stretch forward to a single door and he gulped. From the outside, it seemed to be as big as his own house... he just realized it was a lot longer and probably a lot bigger too.

"Do you want anything to drink, Kurt?"

"Uh- Water's fine..."

He shook off the mental quip about to storm through his mind and followed the half naked Italian through the house towards the kitchen. The decor was simple, tasteful, turqouise and carmel-ish... he wasn't sure what to call the color but the entire house was colored in it, shifting only a little between rooms. The kitchen was a cacophony of black, turqouise and gold and he wished his own house was so neatly decorated.

"The decor in here is amazing..."

"Yeah? Dad's had a friend do it for their anniversary present, " he announced turning to hand him a bottle of water.

"Oh...that's awesome... do you... think you can handle the routine?" Kurt asked hesitantly.

"I should be fine..."

"Okay... uhm... are you okay?" Kurt asked not really finding much else to say whil avoiding his gaze and leaning against the kitched counter.

"Were you worried?"

His face flushed and Emiliano almost laughed at the adorableness of it.

"I-I... We were a little worried that you didn't show up."

"That's not what I asked," he breathed and Kurt yelped before spinning around to be face to face with him.

_I should really learn to keep him in my sights at all times..._

"I-I..."

"You're... trembling."

"I-I... you're close."

"I noticed. Does it bother you?"

He gulped and his breath came out in a short pant," Y-Yes."

He stepped back a bit and smiled before turning around again, "I'm gonna go put on a shirt."

"No, that's fine... I've got to be going now anyway..."Kurt stuttered and speed walked towards the door.

Emiliano chuckled a little as the door closed behind Kurt's back and swirled the remaining water in his cup before turning towards the sink. It was obvious that Kurt was interested in him...He hoped that Kurt didn't think he was merely teasing him... What if he never realized that he was quite serious? There was a part of him that cringed at the thought but the look in Kurt's eyes had screamed desire and fear... He sucked on his teeth slightly and plopped on the edge of his bed. He would have to try it another way... How blatant could he be?

He smirked at the thought and pulled out a skillet to start on dinner.

_This'll be interesting..._

_I'm am so fucked... _Kurt realized, getting dressed for the next day. He was trembling looking through clothing to pick the perfect outfit, he'd woken up early...two hours early. Two whole hours that could have been his if it wasn't for that damned Italian God he had to deal with every day. He decided on black and red theme and the skinniest jeans he could find, black blouse and belt with a red blazer. He combed his hair and headed out to his car and climbed in to head to school with the soothing sounds of Metallica's Puppet Master... He just wanted the day to be over... Of course, when did he ever get what he wanted.

"Hey, Kurt, over here!" Mercedes called in the voice that meant business.

He turned and swallowed hard. Dear God, he was gorgeous...

_The myth about Italian men having style is true...VERY true..._

Apparently, he had the same idea of proving a point and testing the limits because his hair was free from that pony tail and falling around his shoulders, blowing in the wind and generally being distracting. It was wavier than he remembered and he swallowed hard as Emiliano's eyes centered on him. Those silver-blue eyes that glowed with the blue and black of his outfit. It wasn't anything over the top, he looked like he genuinely didn't care with a simple button up blue, grey, and green shirt that made his eyes look a little green as well. He wore black jeans, white tennis shoes and damned if the look of rolled up sleeves didn't suit him. Unlike every other day, except the time he saw him half

Kurt shook his head trying to organize the aspects of the other's look for the day rather than letting it all enter his mind and overwhelm him...but then he smiled lightly at him.

"Hello Kurt."

"Hello, are you feeling better?"

He nodded,"Much better..."

"Well I'm feeling just dandy, let's get to class!"

Kurt never thought he'd be grateful for Mercedes being as blunt as she was. The day passes smoothly except for the fact that Emiliano seemed to be everywhere. When it came time for Glee, Kurt sighed in relief that the lesson for the week was simple, going over the routine. He could do that...

Emiliana didn't have such luck as she headed to Vocal Adrenaline practice and pass a group of Jesse and a few other female members of the group. He turned to watch her walk and she didn't even spare him a glance. She headed up to the stage, ditching her heavier clothing on the edge of it as she stretched and talke to Shelby about what the number they would be doing for the day.

She performed flawlessly and silently without saying much. The team noticed the difference when she popped in her I-pod again and sat on the floor as everyone began to pack up and get dressed as she stretched out from the long practice. Jesse came up behind her with silent steps as the words she sang softly were audible to his ears.

"And the award for the best liar goes to you... for making me... believe... that you... could be.. faithful to me... Let's hear your speech... Oh~..."

He froze before reaching out to her and sighed, marching away towards his car and away from the school. He couldn't blame her and had no doubt that she knew he was behind her all that time. She didn't bother to look back as he left, but slid off the stage and pranced her way out the door. She walked home through the darkness and packed the rest of her summer clothing before crawling into bed.

The routine continued that way all the way to three days before Sectionals. When she stepped on stage with Vocal Adrenaline, she was a piece of a well-oiled machine and nothing more. When she stepped on that stage she danced with Jesse like he never hurt her, life they were on speaking terms, singing those words of "Paparazzi" to each other like nothing was wrong, even as Tonya had managed to bump into her a bit hard and of course harass her the entire day.

When Shelby called the final cut and nodded for them to leave, she waited for them to leave and waited for her soul to return to her body. There was nothing else to do as she breathed and did one last thing. It was their last practice before Sectionals and that was all she had to give before she left Mount Carmel for good. She bowed to the empty auditorium and smirked wryly.

"I'm giving nothing more to this," she said and left.

She climbed into bed after finishing up a bit of Calculus and ignored the blaring IM Message alerts from _Tenor__101_.

_**Tenor101 says** I know you're online, reply to me._

_**Tenor101 says **Talk to me, Ana._

_**Tenor101 says **Talk to me._

_**Tenor101 says **Please?_

_**Tenor101 says **Please? Ana, I'm sorry. If I could take it back, do it over, and change time, I would. Just please say something to me. Please?_

_**BLV13 has logged off.**_

**_BLV13 has blocked Tenor101 from messaging._**

**_BLV13 has unfriended Tenor101.  
_**_**  
**_

Jesse sat back in his chair seeing the alerts pop up and her name disappear from his IM list and sighed. Damnit, how had it ended up like this? Emiliana had come to the school, looking as proud and strong as she had always been, and he had been drawn to her. It had seemed fated that they would at least become friends seeing as they were pretty much taking all the same classes...

He laughed at his first impression of her...beautiful and way out of his league, even if she did dress like a social reject.

_**The bell rang as he settled into his seat near the back of the classroom. Spanish, god why was he taking this again? That's right, language requirements... The only thing he had to look forward to was choir and then Vocal Adrenaline practice after school in a few days. Thinking about joining such an elite show choir as a freshman had scared him shitless when he first decided to try-out, but now he was fretting over the high notes in his song choice and wondering if there was another song that could showcase his talent a bit better.**_

_**"Is someone sitting here?"**_

_**He looked up at the voice and gulped at face that matched it. The silver-blue hue of her eyes spoken in volumes of strength and longing with dark curls swept to the left in a messy braid over her shoulder and wisps of it escaping to fall around her face under the low baseball cap. He immediately thought of his mother when he saw her, she had always kept her hair in that fashion when she used to cook. It had been forever since he'd seen her that way though.**_

_**"N-No, it's all yours."**_

**_Her lips lifted in a smile and she slid into the seat beside him, shuffling through her messenger bag for paper and pencil, opening it to a sheet of music as he looked her over. She dressed simply, much different than all the other girls he'd seen that day. Baggy jeans that were obviously male and too big for her, converse, red, black, and white plaid shirt over a black and sleeves rolled up to her elbows...she looked amazing in his eyes despite her obvious lack of curves._**

**_"So, what's your name?"_**

**_She looked at him in confusion, "Emiliana...yours?"_**

**_"Jesse...It's nice to meet you...Why'd you look at me like that?"_**

**_"Nice to meet you too, it was just odd having someone address me here..."_**

**_He blinked and laughed. As freshman, they never really got any attention unless they were being pushed and shoved into lockers... The only protection was on Vocal Adrenaline, the football team, or the Cheerleaders... She didn't look like any of those._**

**_"I know what you mean... I think it would be a good idea to find shelter early... Do you plan on joining anything?"_**

**_"No," she replied. "I've got too much going on at home. You?"_**

**_He nodded in understanding, "I'm going to try for Vocal Adrenaline."_**

**_She nodded and class began. As they showed up more and more as the day passed, their conversation began to degrade into all fields of life: favorite bands, pass times, history, family, etc..._**

He laughed at the memory a little. Had he not met Emiliana that day, he probably would have never made it through all of Vocal Adrenaline... the hazing, the test, the mental games...She had been his source of sanity and applause when he felt like he was falling apart...He sighed knowing that he'd wronged her... He remembered it in the middle of sophomore year and wished that he'd never done it, never said that comment in junior year that got him a solid right hook in the face, or that thing a few weeks ago that got a bottle of ice cold red kool-aid poured down his shirt...

Emiliana slid on her sunglasses and marched to school early that morning of Sectionals, a three day event. Through the dew covered field she'd managed she saw the members of Vocal Adrenaline convening around the bus as the boys helped loaded their luggage and things onto the bus. She was wearing the same style she always had, baggy, too big clothing and it seemed like she was still

"Oh, I guess she did show up after all."

Emiliana almost laughed at the girl's sneer as Jesse tossed a suitcase over to Mark standing by the bus as they started packing up. He approached her and reached out to take her bag and she brushed past him without so much as a word, shoving her suitcase in with everyone else's. She heard the huff of annoyance as she climbed onto the bus of noisy teenagers. Shelby told her to sit in the back and of course, being as persistent as he was Jesse took the seat beside her.

"I'm sorry-"

"Spare me," she cut him off bundling up in her jacket and curling up against the window. She had nothing to say to him.

"Won't you at least listen to me?"

"You're not saying anything that I want to hear, you belong to Vocal Adrenaline and I'm leaving. At least let me leave without punching you please?"

He gritted his teeth at her uninterested tone and sat back in defiance. She would listen eventually. She had to, there was so much he had to explain. The bus ride there was silent with her breathing and his preoccupation with staring at her. How had things gotten so complicated? When they arrived, before he'd managed to shake her awake, her eyes flew open and she gripped his wrist in an iron grip. Her eyes flashed silver as sweat rolled down her face.

"Don't," she said calmly and got up as the rest of the bus got ready to get off. She got past him and off the bus before most of the group had time to grab their things. He stared after her as a familiar sound entered his hearing.

"Gotta have that funk!"

_Oh no... not them..._

The members of New Directions climbed onto the bus early that morning, after they loaded Artie onto the bus, everyone grabbed a seat and they were off to Sectionals. Emiliano slid into a seat across from Kurt and behind Mercedes, enjoying a bit of silence before Mr. Schue began to speak.

"Alright gang, it's about three hours to our hotel so try not to scream too much. We'll check in, unpack, and reconvene around noon for a bit of practice okay?"

"," Rachel started making most of the bus exhale in exasperation. "Is it possible that we sing to warm up before we get there? Just a little?"

He sighed and looked around, "Sure...as long as everyone agrees."

"Thank you Mr. Schue, so can we sing-"

"No," Mercedes interjected. "No Broadway, no. We need something that everyone is actually going to like."

She pouted as Emiliano leaned over toward Mike and Matthew, whispering on about something.

"What is it?"

Emiliano smirked and enlisted Puck as well as he began to tap out a beat on the chair and Matt and Mike joined in beat boxing with Puck hitting the notes of the back music and Quinn vocalizing

Mercedes' face lit up as she knew the song.

"Come on Aretha, you're the only one that this works for..." Puck joked.

"I bust th windows out your car...And no it didn't mend my broken heart. I'll probably always have these ugly scars but right now I don't care about that part..." She sang with Rachel pouting as she didn't know the song.

Kurt smirked leaning over as Emiliano joined in on the beat boxing and Santana joining the background vocalizing. The beat he tapped began to slow and change as his rhythm changed and the girls caught on, changing.

"How about a round of applause?...Hey, standing ovation..." Santana sang over head as Rachel tried to join in the main vocals with Mercedes.

While it was obvious who had more of the song's attitude, that didn't matter as they made it through the song.

"Really had me going... now it's time to go... curtains finally closing. Very entertaining."

Kurt joined back up as the guys beat boxed and tapped the rhythm on the chairs. Ironically, the random mash up they created kept them busy for most of the trip swtiching from "Take A Bow" to "Unfaithful", then "Love the Way You Lie" with Artie rapping and Tina singing the main vocals. Finally getting the girls to sing together, the boys took over with an acapella version of "Poison" and then "I Wanna Sex You Up" making most of the girls squeal a little at the guys' harmony an innuendo. Peace pervaded the next hour of travel as the members of New Directions settled down into their seats and either took a nap or worked on homework.

"Are you asleep?" Kurt asked and Emiliano turned his head at the question.

"What's up?"

"I...I just wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"What's it like living in Europe?"

He blinked and contemplated it.

"It's... different." He said finally. "I was born in Italy, so the concept of snow was a little fuzzy until I lost _mi famiglia_, but the I think the biggest difference is the views on sexuality and religion. Religion isn't all that important here and sexuality is kind of hidden here and looked down upon. It's weird. I wouldn't know how to really explain it.'

Kurt managed to reign in a blush at his smooth Italian and swallowed hard as their eyes met. His smiling and Kurt's darting around with anxiety. If there was any time he wished he was straight and not flustered, it would be now. He didn't want Emiliano to think he was total creep, nor did he want to lose such a friend just because he couldn't keep his hormones in check. No, he would wade through this and breathe.

Emiliano noticed the chance in Kurt's expression as he heard the gears turning in Kurt's head. _Don't push it...what if he's not gay? I don't want to be hurt... _things of this nature were writtnd all over his face. He leaned closer with a smile.

"Tell me more about you, if we're going to share history."

He swallowed a little and conceded to the warm smile. He moved over to sit with him and proceeded to tell his life story in the sleeping quiet of the bus. He listened earnestly, laughed when needed, comforted when appropriate but throughout the whole time, he hadn't taken his eyes off of Kurt, not even for a moment. Even when he nervously went into discovering his sexuality and the death of his mother, even his crush on Finn. He wasn't sure why he was opening his heart to him so easily, but the words had flowed so easily. When he tried to stop, there was a stronger part of him that kept talking in earnest as he continued spill his life story. God, what was he doing?

"That's my lifeen." He concluded breathing in softly.

Emiliano smiled, "Sounds so much different then what I imagined."

"What do you mean?"

"You look as strong as your story implies...but I didn't expected turmoil and fear in your voice. Are you afraid of me?"

He blinked and shook his head dumbly as Emiliano sat back, "You're not particularly scary, no."

He smirked, "I see... well then Kurt, I suppose I can tell you the story of my life as well then, hm?"

He flushed, "You don't have to."

"I do, it's only fair. I don't mind." He assured looking out the window at the slowly lightening sky. "I was born in Sicily, Italy. Mi madre was Esmeralda Romano, mi padre was Ivan Romano. Mama was an opera singer in Italy and toured before she met papa and settled down. He was an ex-F.B.I. agent and probably something else before they met and centered themselves and their careers as an opera singer and a plumber in Italy. My sister's name is Emiliana, Nonna Romano named us."

Kurt tilted his head and Emiliano smacked his forehead.

"Dia- I'm sorry. I'm still trying to get used to speaking in English regarding my family. Nonna, means grandmother. Her name was also Esmeralda. She said that we were twins and the names suited us, thus those were our names..." He reached to his neck and pulled out a locket with a water damaged picture of a little girl in it. The girl had to be no older than ten with his eyes and the same black hair. "This is the only picture I have of her..."

His eyes saddened as Emiliano trudged on through his life. "We got separated when we were ten years old and I was adopted by the Logans in Italy during their relocation. I wanted to find my family, but the reports said I was dead and I had no idea where they were...but I do now and the minute I find Emiliana, we'll be contacting them and planning a trip back to Italy."

"Did you eve go back after that?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I went there when we were waiting for a connection in Rome. It was odd to see my country again after so long of not being there. The other times, both times during my time in show choir and opera, were... very experimental for me."

"Why do you say that?"

He smiled at the memory. He trip back to Italy made him run into an old flame and it had ended passionately, drugged, and they still kept in contact. His time in Amesterdam when he toured with the Japanese show choir was much more explorative... He had been a bottom, desperate for attention and an escape. Not hard to imagine all the "experimenting" he'd done.

"I was a little lost then and freaking out about the direction my search for Emiliana was going... I didn't get into trouble or anything like that... I was just very...experimental with music, sexuality, anything that would make it hurt a little less..."

"Are you telling me you had a wild side?"

He smirked, "Had? _Have_, and yes. But that part of me died down as I got older and we moved to the states."

Kurt swallowed and imagined every type of woman that he could have experimented with... Emiliano almost laughed, knowing what the other was imagining.

"How do you like Lima so far?"

"It's... not exactly my favorite place in America for sure. Is there a reason why everyone here is so uptight about sex? Either you have too much sex or you have the wrong kind, it's not exactly very open minded."

Kurt blinked and almost choked at the implication. "Uhmm... can I ask something?"

"Sure."

"Are you...-"

"Alright everyone up! We're almost there!" Mr. Schue called and Kurt frowned, three hours had gone by way too fast.

"Who's ready to win this?" Mr. Schue asked to the awakening Gleeks.

"Tear the Roof Off. We're gonna tear the roof off the mother sucker." Kurt started and most of the group joined in his joy with the guys playing bass and Mercedes coming in with crazy vocals

"We need the funk! Na-na-na-na do do do do do do do ...ow~.. We gon' turn this mother out. We gon' tear this mother out!"

They cheered and sang heading off the bus after Puck had manged to put the song on and blast it through his radio. Bags and all they got off the bus and started a dance circle beside the bus as Artie was lowered off the bus to join them. They didn't even realize that Vocal Adrenaline was behind them, unloading the truck and the extra voice, wailing along with Mercedes wasn't from New Directions.

"Yeah~...yeah~.. Hey~...ey~... Funky!"

"We want the funk, gotta have that funky."

"Yeah~..."

The group went quiet as the tanned girl not from New Directions wailed the last note of their rendition of "GIve UP the Funk" leaving the group in shock as she laughed underneath the brim of her baseball cap.

"Who are you?" Mercedes asked.

She froze as if she'd been caught in the headlights of a truck and rushed off towards the Vocal Adrenaline and disappeared in the crowd.

"She's in Vocal Adrenaline? Fuck!" Puck cursed as they managed to pull of their luggage and head inside behind Vocal Adrenaline. Kurt tilted his head a little, lost in contemplation as Mr. Schue managed to check them in and give them their room assignments, he was with Artie, Finn and Matt, Emiliano and Will, Mike and Puck, Rachel and Quinn, Santana and Brittany, and Tina with Mercedes. Armed with keys they headed to their rooms a little disheartened as the unpacked. Who the hell was the girl with the killer set of pipes?


	5. Freaky Twin Thing

Emilian could not believe her luck- or lack thereof. She was rooming with Tonya, of all people. Damn her luck and all she heard was "ugly figure" this and "no talent" that. The steadily calming demon italian girl that hated the world in her wanted to turn around and rip the bitch's weave out, but of course the calm martial artist said no, and she breathed. Shelby would never forgive her if she did. To calm herself, she walked out of the room and into the middle of the foyer, ignoring the glares of everyone as she headed outside to the concert hall they were holding Sectionals. She passed the sound without a thought and stopped looking around the corner to see a group of students.

"Ooh baby, baby, ooh baby baby. Get up on this."

She bit her lip turning her cap to the side and coughing to make her voice a little deeper and walked over to see what was going on. It was a circle of guys, four to be exact. Puck and Finn wailed at Mike amazing break dancing skills to the song "Push It." It was different than the typical music that would be played around the members of Vocal Adrenaline, a very welcome change as she began itching join in and enjoy her style rather than hide it for perfection. There was so much _free_dom in _freestyle_, versus choreographed dancing.

"Hah! Told you I could!" Mike said coming up from a head spin and smirking in triumph. "Who wants to challenge this?"

"Yo, what's up man?" She almost jumped at the sound as Puck gestured to he and the music kept playing.

"Uhm, me?" She asked, hoping he really thought she was a guy.

"Yeah, you dude. What school are you from?"

"Mount Carmel."

The music stopped and they glared at her," You're a Vocal Adrenaline punk huh?"

_Talk about tense much? _While she didn't particularly care for the members of Vocal Adrenaline either, she never thought she'd be glared at like that for being in it except from people apart of Vocal Adrenaline as well.

She raised an eyebrow,"Don't lump me in with those brainless machines...I have nothing in common with them."

They looked around, probably not expecting her to say that as she leaned against the radiator that Finn sat on.

"Aren't you at least going to introduce yourself to me before you start harassing me?" She asked calmly.

"I could punch your face in," Puck threatened standing, she didn't even flinch, but dodged around his arm, spinning into the middle of the circle.

"I'll make a deal with you," she said holding up her arms in surrender. "I'm not here to sabotage or steal anything. I just came to join in..."

"What? You want to join in? Aren't you a little small for this?" Puck asked. "Not to mention, why don't you hang out with your Vocal Adrenaline friends?"

It was true surrounded by them, she was a little on the small side, even if she was about 5'11. Then again, they hadn't figured out she was girl yet so that was fine.

"I hate Vocal Adrenaline and they don't particularly like me either." She said with a wry smile, "I'm only it for personal reasons, I don't give a damn about which school you're from."

"He reminds me of Kurt, what's your name anyway?" Finn asked, the tall one with the blue eyes.

"Uhm...Emiliana."

They frowned and shrugged it off. There had to be plenty of people named Emiliana..or o...Hell, what did it matter. If _he _was cool, he was a bro' and that s the logic of the teenage boy. She understood that well, all she really needed to do was to prove she wasn't a jerk and that she hated Vocal Adrenaline just as much as everyone else...Which she did.

"Alright, enough hostility, it's obviously, he's just here to dance. Let's see if you can keep up, Emiliana." Mike said turning on the music to "Good Vibrations."

She smirked at that and took his challenge. It was a game of agility and more fun that she'd had in a while since joining Vocal Adrenaline. Rather than battling, they had matched their moves pretty well, that was until she'd pushed a bit too hard and broke down to break dancing, causing the guys to nearly freak out at her flexibility and speed. She spun up to her feet as the song ended and the clapped her on the shoulder with words of praise.

"Damn, man, that was fucking awesome!" Puck said.

She smiled hopelessly at him, he didn't really need to know she was a girl did he? Nah. The only reason that anyone at Mount Carmel knew she was a girl was because she took gym, that was about it, otherwise they would all think she was a guy with a very soft face. Of course she faced a bit of harassment every now and again, but attempted body slam is a lot easier to avoid and deflect that attempt sexual harassment...There was a reason she taped herself down, outside of the dojo, there was a reason that she wore clothes that didn't fit her figure... She didn't want a repeat of _last _time...she was still seeing the school counselor for putting that guy's head through a glass door.

"Thanks, it was fun, what school are you guys from?"

"Mckinley."

"Oh...wow. That's the school I'm transferring next week."

"What?" They asked, in general disbelief. If they got another dancer up to par with Mike, they would probably kick Vocal Adrenaline's ass no problem.

"Yeah, my mom and I are moving to Lima this weekend. I start school on Monday at Mckinley. I guess that means-" he phone rang that obnoxious RING! RING~! PICK ME UP GODDAMNIT~!

"Hold on, hello?" She asked into the was Shelby. "When? I'll be there in a minute." She hung up.

"I gotta go finish up my few weeks in Vocal Adrenaline right now, but I'll catch you later, hm?"

"Yeah, dude. You're welcome to anytime. We're on the Third floor, room 304."

She nodded, "Maybe I'll come hang out with you guys. Later."

They watched her go as Mike's alarm went off alerting them to go meet up with and New Directions for a bit of warming up and strategy. They saw Emiliano lounging in the sun near the table New Directions occupied and wanted to ask him about his name but didn't bother as Rachel started talking and Mr. Schue went through the set list again. There had been something about feminine and masculine- o's and a's- in spanish hadn't there?

_Maybe, but then again that dude was pretty freakin' girly._

"It's simple cause we're finishing off with the "Give Up the Funk" for this one."

"Mr. Schue we know the setlist, we don't even go until tomorrow." Kurt started, "Can't we just go scope out the competition?"

He sighed, "Fine, but we meet back here for dinner. Tomorrow we go at noon so everyone be prepared alright? Don't get lost and be back here before dinner."

They mumbled their understanding and headed their separate ways, most of them just went back to sleep for awhile.

Emiliana wished she was that lucky as she climbed up on stage in her workout clothes for the final run through of their practice set list and their performance. She breathed: in, out, in, out and let all the emotion drain out of her as the music began and Jesse took the front stage, his tenor hitting and resonating through the room as the routine began.

"Last time I talked to you, you were lonely and out of place..."

The contemporary spin on their first warm up song would slowly degrade into fast paced techno,stylistic dancing and by the time the run through was over, she was starving. The girls of Vocal Adrenaline whispered and snickered behind her back as she put food on her plate and took a seat at a table alone, sighing with the restfulness of it.

"Do you mind if we sit here?" She looked up and shook her head to two familiar faces and froze.

The boy had a very soft face with perfectly combed hair, her senses didn't raise any red flags so she figured he was either gay or thought she was a guy. The black girl in equally stylish clothing was the girl wailing notes in smooth runs during "Give Up The Funk." She was sitting with McKinley kids...

"Nope."

There was a part of her that said she shouldn't invite them to sit with her because she was from Mount Carmel and she already had enough ridicule as it was. She shrugged and said screw it, at least she'd get a good conversation out of it.

"So what's your name? Where are you from?"

"Emiliana, and I'm from Mount Carmel."

Kurt frowned, the name rang a high alert bell in his head. He couldn't see her face very well but she sported the same natural tan between russet and brown that Emiliano had and a bit of an accent, just like Emiliano. But she didn't look or sound very European-beside the noticeable accent- so he didn't push it.

"I'm Kurt, and this is Mercedes we're from McKinley."

She nodded, "I know. I met you earlier when I butted in on your singing circle this morning. I met a few of your members as well...Four of them tall..."

"Finn, Puck, Mike, and Matt," Kurt supplied. "I hope they weren't rude."

"Nope, we had a break dance session."

'Yo!" Puck called coming over with the other guys and sitting down. "Met our dancing friend from Mount Carmel, dude has serious moves."

"Noah, I understand that this maybe hard to grasp but she's a girl."

They looked confused as she smiled and checked her watch, "Yeah, I'm a girl but that's okay. People get me confused all the time. It's the way I dress."

"If you hang out with our oh-so-fashionable ones right here long enough, we won't be able to say anything but's you're a girl." Mike said cheekily as she finished off her lunch and stood. They had had their first performance in half an hour and it time to start getting the entire team ready...

"I'll see you guys around." She said and they waved her off as Emiliano found his way to the table and took her seat.

Kurt watched in fascination, the way he took his seat. Not only because, well the man was fascinating and Kurt had damn near gained an obsession with him but, the movement of unwrapping his silverware from the bottom up, the lounge position he sat in...It was like deja vu...

_That couldn't be the same girl right? What are the odds of that happening?_

Slim to never, his mind quipped but Kurt asked anyway.

"Emiliano... you said your sister's name was Emiliana right?" He asked getting the same slow lift of the head as she had done when he'd asked her if they could sit with her.

"Yeah, what is it?" Emiliano asked a little confused.

"Could you... describe what she was like a little?"

He sighed a bit before sitting back trying to recall the image of his twin sister and Kurt watched him. His eyes flickered silver-blue with the turn of his smile, the same way hers had...Soon everyone was looking at him with the same intensity. Even Finn had caught on to the stark similarities in their mannerisms.

"She was a tomboy... a martial artist...We took classes together, but she went the farthest. She'd probably be 5'10, maybe eleven since our parents were so tall...She liked hats, always wore her hat low enough for her to see you, but you couldn't see her...Uhm...why is everyone staring at me?"

They traded looks with each other and Kurt cleared his throat to get them to stop being so obvious and smiled, "There's someone we should get you to meet then."

He tilted his head, "Okay, I guess. When?"

"Hey kids, I see you've already eaten," Mr. Schue greeted, "You want to pop into to see what Vocal Adrenaline has this year?"

"Now," Kurt said gratefully, standing and pulling Emiliano out of his chair as Rachel and the rest of New Directions came to join them in hurrying Emiliano across the parking lot and into the concert hall where they were performing. They hurried into the hall with Emiliano in silence wondering why this was vaguely familiar to the first time he entered the choir room. Was it custom in Lima to pseudo- kidnap people. Maybe it was just with New Directions?

She breathed in and out, adjusting her hat down over her face and her clothes. The girls were supposed to wear dresses but she had already told Shelby about her _condition_ and there was no way in hell she was sending herself into shock over something like that. She adjusted her hat low over her face and stretched over as the guys snicker and didn't look over.

"She's such a diva."

"What a bitch."

"She's probably a dyke."

She smirked heading towards the stage entrance where Jesse was leaning against the wall.

"Let's draw a truce huh?" He said, "While on stage, we're partners."

"Of course, and when the music is over, I don't want to hear your voice addressing me."

He sighed and nodded offering a hand which she took, gripped slightly, and released as she stretched her ankles and did a smooth spin as the other guys came up to take Jesse away.

"Don't let the weirdo talk to you like that!" They said shoving her back and down to the floor, she evaded the edge of the prep table by a smooth spin and crouched , with her head down, trying to reign in her anger before she struck out.

Their laughter faded into the back of her mind as she stood and turned her head, very slowly and deliberately.

"Don't...put your hands on me."

They stood silent and sneered at her, pulling the stunned Jesse away as Shelby appeared for their "pep talk."

_More like last rites if we fuck up..._

"We're Vocal Adrenaline from Mount Carmel, Section 5." Jesse spoke for the entire team as he was the only person on the stage, he almost smirked seeing New Directions sneak into the hall behind Shelby and the judges. Sporting a black t-shirt, stretched across his chest with black suspenders and black jacket, black pants, and red laced shoes, he was slightly fashionable.

"Good. You may begin when you're ready."

He stepped back from the edge and disappeared into the darkness of the music started... Evanescence?

"Don't cry to me! If you loved me, you would be here with me! You want me? Come find me. Make up your mind~..."

Emiliano's breath stopped as the girl came out. Though it was obvious that she wasn't supposed to blend in with the rest of the girls as they appeared, wearing a majority red version of what Jesse wore with a closed black vest over the male button up shirt, she stood out. But that wasn't it... no it was her voice... She sounded so much like-

_Madre..._ Her hat was low and tipped to one side and he suddenly thought of Emiliana as he got up and moved closer to the stage as the song continued.

She met eyes with Jesse, mid stage as the back and forth of her solo echoed through the hall over the back-up of the choir. Smooth, concentrated, precise- she hated every moment of it as he guided her around the dance floor, in a mock tango and she pushed him back and watched him slide across the floor to meet eyes.

"Don't lie to me! Just get your things!...I've made up your mind..."

Kurt and the majority of New Directions, couldn't help but swallow hard. The new voice was stronger, more passionate than the monotone perfection of the normal Vocal Adrenaline... He recognized the girl as Emiliana, and the girl that had sung with them earlier that morning. He didn't expect her to be such an important person in Vocal Adrenaline _and _a decent human being. Apparently, she was Jesse's partner for this song as it degraded into "You Give Love A Bad Name" with Jesse's star vocals and into their finally of "Falling Down," Jesse and the girl doing a duet of sorts, her vocals almost over powered him but as it was a back and forth duet, they were sort of supposed to. The music ended at last and the judges nodded as he ran up to the stage against the loud protests from New Directions.

"Emiliano!" Mercedes yelled after him, but it was too late, he was already on stage.

Emiliana smirked at the end of the song and took a bow as the judges were finishing up their evaluations and the group headed back stage. Jesse was coming towards her with the intent to speak to her and she already wanted to run, but stepped back in defense mode. The song was over and she figured she was quite clear about the course of things after their performance.

"Mili!"

A chill swept down her spine and heat chased it as Jesse said something she didn't here and everything was drowned about by that one word "_Mili._"

There was only one person that would call her that, know that nickname. He was the only one that would ever be able to call her that. More than that, no one on Vocal Adrenaline had the name. It could be just a coincidence couldn't it? It could as Jesse tried to get her attention again and looked up and past her at something that was apparently very interesting. Those memories of _him _ running across the beach after her flooded her sight and it made it impossible to do anything but hope and hold her breath that it really was him.

"Milli!"

She spun around at the call and was swept up into a hug that knocked her hat off and she pulled back at that teary muttering of that name, "Mili...Mili."

There was always only one person that called her that, "Fratello?"

Jesse stared at the pair as the entirety of Vocal Adrenaline turned around to witness it and New Direction rushed towards the stage too late to stop him. The boy was tall, very tall, model tall, and damn it if he wasn't handsome with long hair, pulled back into a pony tail, and rugged looking clothing. Jesse felt jealousy well up inside him. He was _holding _her. His Emiliana, his Ana, he had never been able to get more than a handshake or dance hold from her, but this random guy was holding her, hugging her to his body, spinning her around and crushing her to his chest like he never wanted to let go. It wasn't as if he had any right to be jealous, after everything he'd done to her, but still... That didn't make it hurt any less when she hugged him back just as tightly and real laughter came from her mouth.

"Emi!" She cried happily, screaming as he spun her around in their joy and didn't let go.

He huffed and marched up to the pair as they spun across the stage, not letting go. Goddamnit, he needed answers. It was burning him up inside.

"What the hell is going on here?" Shelby asked, "Who the hell are you and what is New Directions doing in the hall while we're performing?"

The pair didn't hear her at all. Ten years of searching, wondering, hoping, longing to find each other and they meet by chance at some stupid show choir sectionals they had only joined on a whim and hope. They were far to wrapped up in each other's almost forgotten scent, differences, and similarities that it took Puck and Will to pull them apart from each other.

"What the hell is going on?" Will asked looking between the pair who had not staring, memorizing every detail, laughing a little at the fading scars they'd earned together and reveling in the sight of looking into that warped mirror.

"Mili, _mi trovi._"

"_Dove?_"

"_Sul balcone al terzo piano..._"

"_Ci vediamo lì._"

He nodded with a confidant smile and turned off the stage, Emiliana heading towards backstage as he headed down the stairs and the bitching session began on both sides as he walked to Kurt and looked down at him.

"_Grazi mille, Kurt._" He whispered as he brushed pass the boy and up the ramp with New Directions coming up behind him.

"What the hell was that? How do you know Emiliana?" Puck asked. "You two acted like you were long lost lovers or some shit."

He stopped, "I have been looking for her for a long time..._Mi Sorella._"

He left them in a state of confusion as he headed up the stairs to the third floor to shower and change, disbelieving his luck. If only Emiliana had the same luck...

She arrived at the dressing room, taking off the jacket and suspenders as the rest of the girls entered the dressing room behind her and stepped to the side of a thrown hairspray can.

"You bitch! You screwed up our performance!" Tonya screeched as she slipped on her over sized t-shirt and slid out of the black pants and into her baggy jeans.

She hopped left as she threw another can and turned to slip on her tennis shoes.

"The performance was over and I'd appreciate it if you stop throwing things at me."

Tonya sneered, "You whore. Who was that? Your boyfriend? Everyone knows you've slept with half the school anyway! You always try and look so cool, you bitch!"

Emiliana blinked at the insinuation and put her hat back in the box and put on her baseball cap. She looked at Tonya and smiled lightly leaving the girl confused as she picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

"Tonya," she began. "I understand that you don't like feeling anything less than one hundreth place, but understand that this was my last day with Vocal Adrenaline and after we get back to school tomorrow night, you won't have to worry about me anymore."

The girls gasped at her audacity. She supposed that they were surprised at how much she was saying.

"Before I go, I'd like to clarify a few things. I'm not a whore like you and I don't do incest. He is my brother, my _twin _brother at that and if you don't move out of my way I will fuck you up."

She smiled bright and sunny at them and they moved out of her way as she left and headed out, running directly into Jesse who looked more than just angry. He stopped her from advancing and she huffed in annoyance.

"You never said anything about a boyfriend..."

She didn't respond and tried to step around him, putting in her headphones. As "Telephone" by Lady Gaga began playing and he kept talking.

"What the hell was that? Even if you are moving that doesn't mean you get to ruin our performance with a sappy reunion! More than that, who the fuck are you to be fraternizing with the competition, with those Lima Losers from McKinley?"

She stepped to the side again and he cut her off.

"ANSWER ME!" He yelled, ripping the earphones out of her ears.

The backstage went quiet as she looked down at her headphones and picked them up and up at him.

"I'm kinda busy... K-Kinda busy, k-kinda busy. Sorry I cannot hear you, I'm kinda busy." She sung in perfect time and stepped around him to bound down the stairs and up the ramp. Shelby called after her, but she didn't hear anything but that sound of the music and her brother's voice.

_I left my head and my heart on the dance floor._

_Mi Sorella..._

Tonya looked over at Jesse as he slammed his hand into the steel case of the curtain controls. Damnit! He shouldn't have yelled at her, especially if he wanted to reconcile with her. He whirled on Tonya and rushed to change and chase after Emiliana down the ramp and out the door. The whole of Vocal Adrenaline was sure that he had officially lost his mind and Emiliana was a whore, but since when did they know anything? Up the stairs, in double time, as the chorus started and down the hallway towards the large balcony where she heard the voices of New Directions asking questions and silence as a response.

"Emi!" She called bursting through the balcony doors in true dramatic fashion.

"Mili," he greeted calmly and waited for her to join him on the bench in front of the group.

She did so, sitting cross-legged across from him and staring him down and he did the same before the reached out, in true twin fashion and pinched each other's cheeks.

"You've gotten bigger," he commented.

"As have you, you're giant."

"Still breaking glasses with that voice huh?"

"Still shaking floors with yours?" She replied and he smiled as they cupped each other's faces and traced the planes of each other's faces, marveling the changes ignoring New Directions' surprise and fascination.

Rachel was freaking out with the idea that he might already have a girlfriend and Kurt freaked about the fact that he might actually be straight. He needed but didn't want the confirmation. He had a sister and even if he was gay, he'd have to go through her to get to him if the way they were acting was any inclination. Looking on though, he could tell they were twins when they dropped their hands at the same time and mirrored each other's movements and facial expressions with ease and never broke eye contact... They even blinked in time.

The silver reflected in each other's eyes and the silent conversation went on without anyone knowing, without any words except their movements.

_I've missed you._

_You've gotten beautiful._

_Why are you dressed that way?_

_I want to know what life has been like without me there._

_Have you been safe?_

She looked away at that hidden question and placed her hand on her knees at the question staring at him and looking away from his probing eyes. She pouted and poked him in the chest as a sign of her turn to ask questions.

_Are you in a relationship?_

_Have you contacted la nostra famiglia?_

_Have you gone back to see Mamma e Papa?_

_Have you told them yet?_

He smirked at her challenge and poked her back, in the forehead and laughed at her pout.

_Have you been well?_

_Where do you live now?_

_Have they been treating you well?_

_Who was that guy that you danced with?_

She stuck out her tongue as he ruffled her hair and she slapped his hands away. They'd only spent the whole of ten minutes together They weren't on spilling the contents of their hearts yet were they?

_Who is the boy that you said Grazi to?_

_Do you like him?_

_You look happier than I remember._

_There's so much to explain._

"What the hell are they doing?" Puck asked watching them with the group as people slowly began to step off the balcony and leave. Kurt smiled behind him and pulled Mercedes along with him.

"They're bonding."

"They were bastards." She replied. "I hated it at Mount Carmel."

"I was a little wild." He said with a smile. "There are some interesting tales to add to your collection."

She laughed, "He's an excommunicate."

"Who do I need to beat into a pulp?"

"I've got it covered." She said, "What about you?"

"It's a long story." He said, "We ended well."

"Gabe' was a nice person, after all."

For once it wasn't just Finn that was completely lost, there was definitely a part of the conversation they were missing standing on the outside of this strange and powerful

"That's freaky," Puck commented.

They turned to him with the same smile, "We get it all the time...It's a freaky twin thing."


	6. So Very Much Harder

Emiliano hugged her tightly at around eight o'clock that night. They exchanged phone numbers, addresses, and the fact that she was transferring before it was time for New Directions to perform. _Break a leg_ she'd said and he smiled at her, kissing her forehead gently before heading off with his team to get dressed. She couldn't help but smile back at him, a real smile. She almost forgot what that felt like as she nearly skipped to the Vocal Adrenaline side of the hotel where the kids were congregating around her hotel room door, laughing, sneering and going quiet as she approached.

"Oh, the whore's back."

She blinked at the remark as Tonya moved through the crowd, throwing a notebook at her feet. She looked down and recognized it by the silver lock that lay in pieces and black laced maroon cover-her diary. Don't get it wrong, she wasn't the "Dear Diary..." type of girl, but her therapist said to keep one as she continued to grow and see how she changed as the time between her and the _incidents _grew. She was glad that she never wrote anything straight forward in that notebook or she might have collapsed right there.

She picked it up and walked towards her door, pushing it open, seeing her clothes strewn everywhere, pages ripped and shredded over her bed. She only tilted her head as they laughed at her and she turned with a smile. They thought this was distressing? They have no idea what distressing is. They had no idea what type of iron re-inforced trap her mind was...They had no idea about her mental stable instability.

"Was this supposed to hurt my feelings?" She asked, tossing her notebook into her backpack and her clothes back into her suitcase before zipping it up and preparing to leave the room as they stared at her.

"You're such a freak!" She heard in between the rolling of her suitcase and inner laughter. God they were stupid she'd gotten up from assault, took out a rapist, a murderer, survived five mental breakdowns, and still hadn't even attempted to commit suicide. She'd been betrayed, left to die in the wilderness, left to bleed to death on a dirty floor, her herparent burn alive, wtch her world fall a part, and she was still here. High school pranks were the least of her problems.

Jesse stopped her from leaving the room with a defiant look as he closed the door behind him and shut the whole of Vocal Adrenaline out. He had no idea the light he'd just switched on inside her, because the first thing from her mouth was, "I hate you."

He didn't see surprised, so much as hurt by the statement as she stepped closer to him.

"Ana we need to-"

"I have nothing to say to you . You made your choice and I made mine the moment you let them into my world."

"I didn't even tell them anything!" He protested, "Why are you being so difficult about this? Won't you at least let me apologize? I'm sorry."

"You told them enough for them to make me your , I didn't tell you everything, and I'm glad I didn't because apparently, you are not fit to be a confidant. Apologize, go ahead. That doesn't mean I forgive you. Or maybe I will just so you can get the hell out of my sight and out of my it makes you sleep at night, I forgive and forget you ."

Silence whipped through the room as her words sunk in. Her tone had been so devoid of emotion, it was obvious that she didn't give a damn. He didn't expect reconciliation to be easy, but he did expect it to be easier than it was. She wasn't even giving him a chance to explain anything at all. It wasn't as if he knew that much about her except for the fact that she sang, was from Italy, was adopted and was looking for her twin brother so they could go back to Italy together to visit their parent's graves...It was a step above the basic "Hi, my name is conversation."

"Ana..."He said in that sad, helpless voice that she was sure had made girls bend to his whim. Not her, not this time and never again.

That time had been a simple miscalculation of her surroundings and of herself. Looking back at that moment during sophomore year that the members of Vocal Adrenaline had pulled the chain and made her go flying, skidding, crashing into the ground in an agony that translated to their pleasure, it had been a mistake and she would never make it ever again.

_"Come on, Ana. It's been a whole summer since I've seen you, and the last time you were in boys swim trunks and a t-shirt."_

_She laughed at that turning the page of Atlas Shrugged and considering his proposition. _

_"Please... just for a day? Can't you look like a girl?"_

_She huffed, "It's not my fault the students are stupid. How was I supposed to know they'd think you were gay?"_

_"I'm just saying that it would be a lot easier on us both if you looked like a girl when I tease you then when you look like a guy. What's the worst that could happen? Just try it, for one day? As a birthday, present?"_

_She pouted, "Fine, but only because I have nothing else to give you. I'll dress like a girl, alright?"_

_She could hear the smirk in his voice, "I'll enjoy this and take lots of pictures."_

_"Shove it, St. James. I'll see you in the morning."_

_Hanging up, she was left with the sound of her thudding heart and stood to face her dresser. If there was anything worse than this, this nausea welling up inside her...She'd hate to feel it as she reached in with shaky fingers to push her large plaid, male, button up aside and crouched to retrieve the nondescript box of clothes in the back. The box didn't fight the soft tug she'd pulled at it with and gleamed under the light in all its plastic glory, shielding the objects of her greatest fears and worst nightmares._

_She opened it and pulled out the first article of clothing... a blouse. A soft, baby blue, fitted blouse that buttoned up and traced the curves of her waist. Underneath this, there had to have been about ten to twenty more shirts like it, all gifts, all never worn...most of them still had the tags on them. She'd shaken so hard when she first started receiving feminine clothing from her social worker and the people of the orphanage after she went back in, that they had to drug her to get her to sleep after she'd stashed the clothes away like a dirty secret...her dirty secret that no one ever needed to know._

_The fluttery skirt was next, the navy blue one that flowed like the familiar tango dresses she'd once worn when she competed with her brother. A pair of cork heels followed, a bra, earrings, bracelet, perfume, a flat iron, curling iron, hair products, and a butterfly clip came after. She closed the box again and pushed it back into the closet, into the shadows and stared at the offending articles, that screamed at her, screeched at her, tearing at the walls of her defenses. Emiliana willed herself to fight back._

_**I've been afraid for long enough...**_ _she chided and stood in a trembling confidence._

_She ironed out wrinkles and imperfections like she was scrubbing the walls of her mind, set up her vanity table with the accessories and hair care items and crawled into bed, her heart still beating a horrible tattoo against her chest. She woke up the next morning with the same feeling, subdued a little as she took as shower and scrubbed her body like she had done all those years ago when she had been teetering on the edge of insanity. Emiliana looked at herself in the mirror as she began to dress. She hadn't forgotten the odd familiarity of snapping the hooks at the small of her back and adjusting the D- cups to sit up right, nor pulling up underwear and the skirt over her hips, followed by lotion and other moisturizers. She hadn't forgotten it at all as she buttoned up the shirt and trembled with the naked feeling she had not wearing more than just the bra underneath, the feeling of being exposed seeing the curve of her breasts and waist through her clothing. Combing, brushing, curing the unnecessary shine, and controlling the slight curl and wave of her hair wasn't something new. Her body remembered it all...and that was what scared her the most._

_Did she want that? Is that what happened? Had it seemed like she did? She'd done nothing more than what she was doing right now with the exception of the flat iron...it had been too humid in Alabama for it to matter and her hair reacted well to it. Is this all it took? Did she want to take the chance again? _

_All these questions swirled in her head as she slipped on those cork heels and lacing them up around her ankles. She reached for the gold chain around her necklace, one part to a whole and begged her brother to give her strength wherever he was. _

_With her backpack on her shoulder and the small black purse in her hand, she headed down the hall towards the top of the stairs, smelling breakfast in the kitchen and hearing silence as she walked down the stairs. Brenita turned and she could see the tears welling up in her eyes as she smiled with the spatula in her hand._

_"Hi," she greeted and slid her bag to the floor and sitting down. "What's for breakfast?"_

_**Please don't make this awkward...** she begged and Brenita grinned._

_"Pancakes and eggs," she replied. "Is your friend going to join us this morning too?"_

_She blinked as the doorbell rang, "I guess so unless there's someone else who rings our doorbell this early in the day."_

_She laughed and headed to the door to open it and Jesse's smile froze on his face, dropping in shock._

_"Just in time for breakfast." She said and walked away from the door. "Lock it behind you."_

_She'd made it to the entrance of the kitchen/dining area before she realized he wasn't following her, still standing in the door way. Staring at her with those blue eyes that smoldered in the early morning light. She knew that look and her body tensed until his eyes lightened to a soft smile. What was that supposed to mean?_

_"You look beautiful," he'd said. "I never imagined..."_

_His voice had faded off in awe as he closed the door behind him and followed her into the kitchen._

_"I never imagined that you cleaned up so nicely... you could be a model."_

_She stopped before entering and turned to him._

_"Don't make this awkward please?...I'm already uncomfortable about this, so please. Don't make this really awkw__ard."_

_He smiled and pinched her nose, "Sure, Princess Ana."_

_She flushed and the surge of heat and fear made her stumble a bit. Jesse caught her and steadied her a bit before she pushed him away and tried to calm her breathing._

_"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered and headed towards the table to begin eating._

_Jesse smiled at Brenita and joined her, not bringing up the moment after that as they finished breakfast up and heading out to Jesse's Land Rover._

_"What's with the car?" She asked._

_"Vocal Adrenaline won nationals... you didn't come?"_

_"Yeah I did, but they gave you a car?"_

_He shrugged a bit as they climbed and he started the car with a sigh._

_"I'm sorry, if I scared you earlier." Jesse started, "I'll try not to make it awkward.."_

_"Thank you."_

_"But you are beautiful," he said and pulled out of the driveway._

_Another wave of fear and heat washed over her on the way to school. They pulled up beside another LandRover and he hopped out, on her side to open her door before she'd even unbuckled her seat belt._

_"Awkward," she said, stepping out and down. Her heart rate spiked at the ride of her skirt up her thigh in the wind._

_"I said I'll try." He said with an apologetic smile and refrained from taking her bag from her as they walked toward the doors of Mount Carmel. _

_They were stopped by the members of Vocal Adrenaline before the reached her locker and the guys leered at her as Tonya asked, "Who is this? Is she knew?"_

_Jesse looked nervous for a moment as Kyle approached her, "Ditch the newbie and come with me honey."_

_His hand gripped her wrist tightly, sending a tense shock up her arm, and her mind reeling. The roughness of his hands, his size, his voice, all of it- She hadn't heard Jesse's protest before she'd spun and shoulder flipped Kyle to the ground and managed to calm down, trudging through the shadowy places of her mind. She wasn't going back._

_"Ana..." Jesse started as the guy on the ground groaned._

_"You bitch," he growled getting up._

_"Stop trying to undress me with your eyes, don't touch me, and stay away from me or you won't be getting up from the floor next time." She said, somehow removing the tremor in her voice._

_"You freak, what the hell is wrong with you?" Tonya asked._

_"Tonya," Jesse warned looking at Emiliana who started her way to her first class, band, after grabbing her flute case from her locker._

_The day continued smoothly, except for those moments she avoided Jesse. Brenita brought her bike up to the school when she called during lunch and when it was time to go, she sped out of the hallway with Jesse following her close behind._

_"Emiliana!" He yelled and cut her off, making her brake quickly before she ran him over._

_"What?" She asked._

_"It's going to rain, I'll give you a ride home." Jesse said with a smile, surprising her._

_"So you're not here to yell at me about judo-ing your friend?"_

_Jesse laughed, "Nope. He's an ass."_

_"You have practice."_

_"It can wait. Stop avoiding me."_

_"I'll bike, Jesse. I'll get there faster than you think. It's just down the street and I really want to go home before this day gets any worse."_

_She had been wrong and she should have been able to read his insistence as something else as he chased after her and she rode down the parking lot towards the school exit._

_1,2,3-_

_The chain came up over the stop of her front wheel and she and bike flipped over, skidding across the ground as her bike crashed, barely missing her leg and the boy named Kyle that she'd flipped earlier that day laughed._

_"That's what you get you bitch!"_

_Pain, blood...Her skirt had ripped over her hip, her blouse around her shoulder as she struggled to lift her body from the initial shock. Her calves and knees were bleeding, blood filled her mouth and trickled down the side of her head and as they lit her bike on fire and threw alcohol filled balloons, they laughed and even through the burning in her eyes, she saw him. Jesse, standing there, looking down at her as the anti-septic burned her skin and she'd struggled to her feet to stare him down._

_"Come on Jesse, do it!" Tonya said and she finally noticed the fire extinguisher in his hand, the hose pointed at her._

_"Go ahead," she said as the edges of her vision blurred as she picked up her backpack, her purse, and kicked off her shoes into the burning bike._

_"Go ahead, **Jesse**. Because this is what you wanted... to be a part of these people. GO AHEAD."_

_The pressure hit her square in the chest and she held her ground and he sprayed her from head to toe. It burned the cut in her hair, coated her clothes in a dusty white, and hurt her more than anything._

_"Whoo!" They cheered as the pressure waned and he tried._

_"I'm sorry," he mouthed to her as he was congratulated and pulled away to practice, leaving her there after throwing the last of their anti-septic balloons at her._

_She watched them go with a wry smile as the ran started and she watched the fire fizzle out under the heavy fall. She walked back home towards the exit, stealing a large black tarp from the gym storage room to wrap herself in. This was as good as it was going to get until she got home. Until she got to her safe haven, until she could scream and burn the clothes she'd saved for the time she could do it. This was as good as it was going to ever get for her._

_Fool me once, shame on you. _Emiliana thought looking at Jesse. _Fool me again, shame on me._

"Move , before you end up incapacitated." She said and marched past him towards New Directions side of floor 3. She knocked on door number 304 where there was the most noise, ignoring the glares and bad-talk of Vocal Adrenaline as the door swung open and Puck looked down at her.

"Yo! Emiliana, come on in! Hey, your sister's here dude!" He called as Emiliano leaned forward to look up and see her and she rolled her bag into the room with her, nodding in greeting to the other occupants of the room as she approached him sitting on the floor.

"What's the matter Mili?" He asked without seeing her face as she collapsed to her knees in front of him and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his chest in silence.

He didn't say anything and stroked her hair gently, rubbing her back and pulling her closer to him and whispering words of comfort. There were no tears leaking into his thin shirt, but there was the soft tremor running through her body that told she was crying. Questions welled up in him, but she shook her head. It wasn't time, not yet. Let her breath, be there for her, hold her, and tell her it'll be okay.

"Lo sono qui adesso...Va bene, io sono qui..."

"Lo so." She whispered, curling up against him as he tugged a blanket that Kurt gave him, around her shoulders.

"Thank you," he said looking up at Kurt as Puck and company turned down the noise for a minute as the siblings occupied the corner of the room.

She fell asleep, hearing the sound of the Mediterranean in his heartbeat and woke up in a bed, swaddled in blankets, and warm. Kurt came around the corner with a soft smile.

"You're awake, that's good. Emiliano just went down to get you something to eat..."He said and took a seat at the edge of the bed. "That and your phone has been ringing off the hook since you went to sleep."

12 missed calls: 12 missed calls from . She dropped her phone on the bedspread and rubbed her head, realizing that this was definitely a different room than the one she'd walked into. Her bag had been shoved into a corner of the room and for some reason, she wasn't on high guard.

"Where am I?"

"In Emiliano's room, he carried you here when you fell asleep in Puck's room."

She nodded and moved to get out of bed when the door opened and Emiliano came through with a plate of food in his hands.

"Hey, I hope Kurt's been taking good care of you..."

She smiled, "He's been kind for the few minutes I've been awake. Is Kurt your boyfriend?"

Kurt flushed and stood up as Emiliano looked at him suggestively.

"_Presto_," He replied and set the plates on the nightstand as Kurt hurried towards the door. "Thanks Kurt, I'll see you later?"

He nodded jerkily, "We have to ride the bus back right?"

He only smirked in reply and nodded as Kurt escaped down the hall towards his room and to breathe. Emiliana laughed at her dear brother.

"Just as subtle as always," she said. "You like him a lot..."

"Yeah I do... he doesn't seema ll that in to me thought-"

"Come off it, he's probably afraid that you're straight. Anyone who would look at you would say you scream "STRAIGHT" in all caps, bold, underlined, and italicized. You don't really come off as gay."

"So I've noticed...How are you feeling?" He asked, handing her a plate and silverware.

She chewed on the decent chicken Parmesan and sighed, "Fine I guess."

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

She froze mid bite and sighed as she pulled his legs to sit cross legged on the bed and continued eating off his plate and snagging food from hers.

"_Fratello..._you have no idea..." She started with heavy breath. "No idea..."

He stopped eating for a moment and stared her in the eyes.

"It'll be easier if I ask questions won't it?"

She gave a shaky nod of her head and he sighed. That was something that would probably never change about his dear sister, she liked informing people, she liked answering questions... being in a trivia team for so long it became second nature when she knew the answer... It was her security blanket, a way to distance herself from the information when she didn't want to comprehend... when her mind was too full to sort through it on her own. She let her instincts take over...

"How old were you when it happened?"

"11..."

_A year after we got separated..._

_"_Where were you?"

"Alabama."

"How did you get there?"

"Drifted in the Mediterranean out into the Atlantic, got picked up by an American ship and registered when they docked in America."

"Where did you stay?"

"A foster home."

"Did you like it there?"

"No."

He paused, watching her eyes glass over like she was lost in her head. The first answer, the only answer she knew, would pop up when he asked...if it was too hard, would she break? Would she not speak?

"Who did it?"

"Justin."

He swallowed, "What did Justin do?"

"..."

Her eyes froze, stopping that right and left motion as her brain searched for the answer. She bit her lip and swallowed hard as her body began to shake. He closed his eyes and pulled her close to his chest, praying that what he was thinking was wrong, that no one had been that cruel to her. That this _Justin_ had not...

"Emiliana...Mili...?" He pleaded and she looked up at him letting the words fall silently out of her mouth and her eyes flutter shut as she buried he face into his shoulder once more.

He sat there with her in his arms well into the night and they fell asleep that way. In the morning, he packed up her suitcase and put her on the bus after the results were announced. They'd made it to Regionals so had Vocal Adrenaline. At the door of the bus, she gripped him tightly rocking gently as New Directions packed up across the parking lot and he was sneered at and oogled by members of Vocal Adrenaline. Jesse glared at him over Emiliana's shoulder and he payed no mind.

"When are you moving?"

"Tonight when I get back we'll be driving over to our house and I start school in the morning." He nodded and pulled back, kissing her forehead.

"Take it easy, don't kill anyone, you have my contact info if you need me..."

"Don't go disappearing on me..."

He laughed,"Just come to New Directions auditions with the intention of singing for real."

"What makes you think I didn't sing for real for Vocal Adrenaline?"

He gave her a knowing look and looked her up and down. She still wore clothes that weren't technically gender appropriate or form fitting... more than that her general attitude told him more about it... She was a afraid and feared her femininity... It was understandable...but it hid so much of her talent.

"Okay, so you have a point."

He laughed and hugged her close, talking late into the night about her experience of high school while at Mt. Carmel...eventually falling asleep to the sound of her voice. When they separated the next morning she went back to her life as a Vocal Adrenaline member and stuck out her tongue across the risers at him. He smirked and looked her in the eye. Jesse glared at him and her for their actions and tried to avoid being near her as much as possible. He was well aware that he had no business butting into her affairs with the members of the glee club that she would soon be joining, but seeing her cling to him, when had not even warranted a hug...To see her so close to another guy when he had not even had a chance...it hurt him more than he expected.

_Fuck my life..._

The tall Italian from New Directions kissed her cheeks and hugged her tightly as Jesse glared at them out his window and Tonya started talking as Emiliana headed towards the bus.

"She's such a slut! I can't believe that little bitch without any type of shape except fat is with that Roman God... That little bitch!"

Jesse huffed his breath as Emiliana stopped and looked at Tonya, "Emiliano is from Sicily, not Rome."

Tonya glared at her as she headed to the back and took a seat in silence. She hummed softly to some song she was listening and didn't even notice when they arrived and Jesse stormed off the bus and got into his car, zooming off past Brenita in the moving van.

As much as he'd hate to admit, he missed her. He wanted her back badly and they hadn't even been in a relationship...but oh- how he wanted to be. When he pulled up to the empty house he stayed in, he pulled the note off the refridgerator, that impersonal telegram that his mother had probably ordered her secretary to type up that morning.

_Your father and I are off on a business trip. Call Rose if anything happens._

_Love, Mother._

Who the hell signed a note like that if they really cared? There wasn't an ounce of caring in that note and that was fine. He was used to it and threw the note away like all hope of ever having his parents at a Vocal Adrenaline event. Of course, he was just another investment that they would drop if he didn't keep up the performance. While his father wanted him on a sports team, he'd been injured and that ended that when he was in middle school. He found his passion, and talent, on stage, singing his heart out when he couldn't speak. Pulling out leftovers, heating them up, and rolling his shoulders he headed upstairs to his room where he could think without the interference of the emptiness of his house. His computer flashed on and IM popped up at it usually did, an open message addressed to **_BLV13 _**laughed at him and he closed the window, knowing that he would never have one of those epic till three o'clock, soul baring, conversations with he now that she was set in ignoring his existence.

Sometimes life sucked...

Emiliana disagreed as she hauled box after box into the house, up the stairs and laughed with the echo of the soon to be full house. She'd be starting school with her brother in the morning after she set up her bed. Despite the long drive and late night, she was full of energy. Singing, bouncing around, setting up Brenita's bed and dresser and then her own before taking a shower and jumping into bed happily...How much better could it get?

Jesse turned into bed and pondered a new life without Emiliana around... with Regionals coming up and them gaining her talent...they might have to pump it up a notch. Whoever that guy she clung to was, there was no doubt that he knew of her real potential...what ever it was. He'd never seen anything more than her strong vocals. She sung alto when she was with them, she seemed normal...but he had the feeling she was only doing enough to be there...Heaven forbid if she tried. Oh life was going to get so much harder...so very much harder.


	7. Let The Games Begin

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**Hey readers, I'd like to point this out that this story isn't really just about Kurt. It's about Jesse too since I didn't really get much info on Jesse, I'll be making up a lot of things so all you hardcore Gleeks, calm down. It's fanfiction and I promise it will get much worse before it gets better...not to mention I will probably make the majority of you hate Jesse for a while, but not to worry! Most of my stories have happy endings I promise.**

**

* * *

**What the hell was wrong with him? He'd gotten up early, made breakfast, ate, and still had about half an hour before he needed to head out the door. Not to mention he just couldn't sit down, bounding around the house with a nervous energy that was so unlike it, Niel thought he'd had a psychotic break down after finally finding Emiliana again.

"Emiliano, sit down before you hurt yourself. Bouncing around won't make you see her any faster." Niel said with a amused smile.

He hadn't seen Emiliano this happy since they adopted him... There was a blanket content and sorrow but never that light in his eyes, like the world was his friend, singing him to sleep. Like he'd gotten the Hell Yeah from God to let the whole of the world rest on someone else's shoulders for all eternity. He decided that he liked this version of their adopted son.

"I'm sorry... I just...you know how much this means to me..."

Neil nodded as Eric came down chuckling, "He's still happy-go-lucky huh?"

Emiliano pouted a little at the word but stood up when the clock struck 7:30 and grabbed his bag.

"See you later," he said rushing out the door and into his car, calling Kurt as he pulled out of the driveway. Kurt appeared in the doorway of his home and came down the driveway to hop into the car with him.

"Morning Kurt," he greeted turning the corner as Kurt strapped in and he opened his phone.

"You're awefully happy...And early..."

"I want to go find out where Mili lives."

Kurt's eyes softened at smile the spread across his face. In the morning light he seemed happier than he'd ever seen him as the phone stopped ringing and his eyes glowed silver in the early morning.

"_Buongiorno, mia cara sorella. Dove abiti?...Si...Black strada? Si...Cinque minuti. Ciao._"

He hung up, turned right and pulled up to a nondescript house with a moving van in front of it.

"I'll go get her. Do you mind?" He asked. Kurt shook his head before Emiliano got out of the car and bounded up the steps to the front door to knock politely. From his seat in the car, he could see the blanket of calm over his shoulders that barely masked his excitement.

The door opened and the woman who opened looked up into a familiar face and squeaked.

"Oh my god, she didn't warn me well enough..." She said. "You must be Emiliano..."

He nodded with a smile, "I am. And you must be Ms. Norwood who's been taking care of _mi sorella..._"

She blinked and nodded as Emiliana came down the stairs and jumped at him. He caught her easily and spun her around a bit before setting her down.

"You two keep that up, people will think you're dating..." Brenita said and they laughed.

"They usually do," Emiliana said. "Come on, before we're late."

"Be good," Brenita said as they headed back to he car and hopped in.

"Morning Kurt," she greeted as Emiliano pulled away from the curb heading towards school.

The arrived and Emiliana flitted off to the Principals' Office to get her schedule and basic info about the school. That wasn't all that important as the moment she walked into her class and saw the man that directed New Directions, Kurt, most of New Directions, and her brother smirking at her.

"Well...looks like we have a new student... Go ahead and introduct yourself."

"Emiliana Romano, Emiliano's twin sister. I'm fluent in Spanish so I don't foresee me really paying attention in the class and...I'm looking forward to the end of this year."

Emiliano shook his head and smiled hopelessly as she took the seat next to him and smiled up at Will who looked a little more than shocked. Class ended and Emiliano followed her to her locker.

"You didn't have to do that."

"I know, but I felt the need to." She said, "You've got quite a few admirers here...that Rachel girl was basically drooling over you...and Kurt definitely likes you..."

"I've been eye fucked more than ever since being here, thanks. I know." He replied as she closed her locker and they headed to gym together. "We're got the same schedule don't we?"

"Yep, it's a freaky twin thing..."

He rolled his eyes at her as she headed into the empty girl's locker room where Rachel was busy posting Glee sign up sheets. She grit her teeth at her soft humming and went to wash the paint off her hand as Rachel turned around and approached her.

"Emiliana Romano right?"

"Yes, and you are?" She asked not bothering to look up.

"I'm a friend of your brother from Glee."

_Friend...right_.

"Listen, we need chorus members and I understand that you were in Vocal Adrenaline with my ex Jesse, that's fine an all but we need more people to join. You know people to stand behind me and watch me as I sing solos...You'd get to spend more time with your brother that way and I understand that you may not be as good as he is but we still need voices and-"

She turned off the facet and turned around to face her.

"One, stop talking to me like I'm an idiot. I may be european but I speak English. Two, you're really not as good as you think you are. Three, you have no sway in my opinion. If I decide to join, it won't be for you."

She huffed, "Well, fine. We don't need that type of attitude in Glee anyway."

She stormed out of the bathroom and Emiliana dried her hands in the silence of the bathroom and walked out walking directly into a icy cold drink in her face and sucking on her teeth as members of the football team, mainly Karofsky walked past.

"Oh shit," Emiliano cursed turning the corner and seeing her.

She stood in silence and glared at the retreating backs of the football players and smirked as the perfect revenge came to mind and she tugged at the heavy over shirt and wiped her face with it. Pulling another t-shirt over undershirt and a new hat from her backpack. He smirked at her.

"Always prepared..."

She smiled sweetly as they headed to lunch and she walked towards the slushie machine, pulling the hoses off the machine and standing at the jock table.

"What do you want you loser?" Karofsky asked looking up at her and she smiled sweetly, sickly sweet and aimed and the hoses, firing at the ring of jocks, making sure to drench them in the sticky cold.

They shrieked and covered their faces as she grabbed Karofsky and aimed the hose down his pants. She sprayed them until the slushie ran out and the lunchroom grew silent. Emiliana shook his head down and rubbed his eyes.

"Now, gentlemen. I don't expect you'll be slushying me anymore now will you?"

"Who the fuck are you, you little bitch?"

Emiliano leapt from his seat moving Emiliana out of the way when Karofsky swung at her and sighed in relief. Had that punch came any closer, it would have been ugly.

"What the hell are you doing Romano saving that little bitch."

"Well this _bitch_, happens to be his sister." She said with a smile and moving around him. "And you should thank him for moving me out of the way."

She walked away without any explanation towards the lunch line while the football players slipped and slided across the ground in the stickiness and Emiliano headed back to the Glee table.

"Your sister...is kind of a badass..."Puck said as she came with a full tray of food and took a seat beside him as he cracked open his thermos full of spaghetti.

"That's not even the half of it," he replied. "That was her being tame actually."

"Yes, I'm just surprised no one had done it before..." Emiliana said biting into her burger and stealing one of Emiliano's breadsticks.

She moaned biting into it and looked at him with a questioning look. He raised an eyebrow.

"You thought I didn't find grandma's recipe? Really?"

"The spaghetti too?"

He nodded and her eyes glazed over, "_Fratello...per favore?_"

He smiled and pulled out another thermos and handed it to her, "I made extra."

Her eyes lit up and she tossed the burger aside, popping the thermos open and stealing another breadstick while forking spaghetti and meatballs out of the thermos at an alarming rate.

"_Oh mio Dio, è così buono! Ha il sapore di casa! Ti amo, fratello._"

He laughed as the thermos was returned empty after she gathered the marinara on the last of his breadsticks with a contented sigh and the bell rang for the end of lunch.

"I'm so glad you enjoyed it," he said. "You're welcome to come with me, Brenita too, when I cook tonight."

"Really?" She asked as they packed up to get to class and waved the Glee club goodbye.

"Of course, we're family and everyone has to meet everyone soon right?" She nodded excitedly and walked into their last class together, taking the seats in the back and sharing notes for Calculus through the period.

It was finally over and without football practice, Glee took precedence. Emiliana headed into the choir room with Emiliano and the Glee club looked more than happy to greet her.

"Mr. Schue!" Rachel's hand shot up as she entered the room. "I don't think non-Glee members, especially ex-members of Vocal Adrenaline should be present when we're practicing."

"Are you saying that because I said you suck, or is this the American way of flirting with my brother by making me hate you?"

She looked scandalized as Emiliano nudged her in the shoulder and looked at Will.

"Forgive my sister, the adrenaline of slushying the footballl team hasn't warn off. Sit down," he said, pushing her gently into a seat and taking the one in between her and Kurt as Will started.

"Alright... well we've got a bit of an issue. We're going to Regionals but we don't have a bus to get there, two we need a setlist, any ideas?"

"Can she leave?" Rachel asked.

She huffed and stood, "I'll go. I used to feel bad for you. You know when Jesse egged you, I didn't speak to him for months...especially since he was so in love with you. But now I hope they do it again just to knock you down a peg or two."

She left the room and Rachel huffed.

"Rachel, what the hell did you say to me sister to make you hate you so much?" Emiliano asked.

"I didn't say anything! She started it!"

"She was probably just being Rachel. Emiliana doesn't seem like the type of person to deal with stupid people." Mercedes said. "Could you maybe persuade her to audition?"

"We don't need anyone else in Glee!" Rachel protested.

"That's the same attitude that made us loose Sunshine to Vocal Adrenaline a couple weeks ago. We can't afford that again." Will said. "If you can, please?"

Rachel growled, "But she'll screw up our entire dynamic!"

"What dynamic? You having the solo all the time?" Kurt asked. "This isn't a dynamic, it's a controlling little diva that is afraid for her position of power. That's it."

The room went silent and Rachel huffed, taking a seat as Will began to speak again.

"The agenda for this week is to recruit. Recruit. We need more people, plain and simple and if anyone has fundraising ideas then let me know. For now, dismissed."

Kurt headed out with Mercedes and Kurt to find Emiliana at her locker packing up her bag and turning to them.

"Mili..."

"Emi." She countered, he sighed.

"Come on, I'll take you home. Do you need a ride Mercedes?"

She nodded. "Is it true you told Berry that she sucked?"

"More or less," Emiliana replied. "Why?"

"You are my hero." She said and hugged her tightly. "After the way you handled the football team at lunch... you win."

"Thanks, what's your name? I don't think I caught it." She said as they piled into Emiliano's car.

"Mercedes, you're the infamous twin sister of Emiliano aren't you?"

She grinned looking at her brother through the rear view mirror as Kurt climbed in on the passenger side.

"Infamous huh?"

"I talk a lot about you. Well I did, but now you're here and you can talk for yourself."

She smirked and sat back. Somewhere in between the Mckinley and Mercedes' house, she found a friend in Mercedes. They had a lot of things in common she realized after she commented on her affinity for Mercedes' really shiny hat. By the time she got out of the car they'd exchanged phone numbers and they were on the way to their side of town, to drop Kurt off and make a call.

"I'll see you tomorrow huh?" Kurt nodded and went inside as Emiliana climbed across the console into the shot gun seat.

"Kurt has the hots for you." She commented, buckling in. "I don't think I've seen someone eye fuck you like that except for your last boyfriend."

He flushed at the memory and coughed to clear his throat. "Anyway, Niel and Eric say yes to a family dinner..."

"Brenita says yeah and she's at home so we can go swing by and get her and come back right?"

He nodded and headed towards Black Street pulling up to the curb as Brenita came out of the house and got in to the car.

"Hello again, very tall and handsome twin of my adopted daughter."

He laughed, "Hello."

"How was school?"

They glanced at each other, "Eventful." They decided and she swallowed.

"I see...uhm... do you two-"

"Always do this?" They asked. "Yes."

"Okay... that's weird."

"It's our freaky twin thing." They said and grinned at Brenita's freaked out expression as they pulled up into the driveway.

Emiliano opened the door and called in, "Hey, I'm here and we have guests!"

Eric came around the corner and glanced between the three with a warm smile.

"So you are the infamous Emiliana Esmerelda Romano," he greeted. "You must be Brenita, hello. I'm Eric and I'm sure Niel is around here somewhere. Niel, babe where are you?"

Emiliano smiled and leaned down to whisper in his sister's ear, "They're always this happy when they're off work. You'll get used to it."

"I love your house..."Brenita said taking it all in as Eric lead them towards the dinning area as Niel came down the stairs in a rush of excitement.

"Welcome!" He beamed nearly apparating to Eric's side and wrapping an arm around his waist. "It is an honor to finally meet you."

They shook hands and danced through formalities when Emiliano declared it was time for him to start cooking and Niel, being the ever effervescent host, offered drinks. Brenita asked for water and Emiliana took her glass to the kitchen to watch her brother in his element as the scent of Mediterranean food wafted into the air from the stove and it felt like they were home with their real family. Ravioli is what he was making. Meat and three cheese with enough garlic to stave off an entire vampire legion. She smiled as their guardians chatted away and she was instructed to set the table by the Chef, toss the salad, and glaze the bread sticks before he set them in the oven. She followed orders and carried the food out to the table after setting the table and joined them as Emiliano carried the main dish out to the table and everyone served themselves.

The sound of laughter, agreement, and family echoed through the house and lingered long after Emiliano drove them home with the promise that they would do it again and that he would be online to talk later that night. He returned to a clean empty kitchen, it was obvious that Niel and Eric had gone to bed from the pervasive silence of the first floor. He headed up the stairs and slid into his computer chair and turned the screen on. Checked his email, replied to his grandmother and uncle in Italy. He'd found her, they were planning on taking a trip back to Italy that summer for their grandmother's 80th birthday. It was going to be a wonderful, of course he would have to find a gift that would suit the purpose as well...

**_BLV13 is online._**

**_BLV13: Hey, so about Kurt._**

**_Sei_Masters_13: What about him Mili?_**

**_BLV13: You want him?_**

**_Sei_Masters_13: Of course I do. Why are you asking?_**

**_Are you going to do anything about it? I know I'm fucked up but you should be fine, Kurt wants you too..._**

**_I know that, but I have to convince him that I'm not trying to humiliate him._**

**_Be theatric, he seems like the type to like honesty and sort of a closet romantic...You are a romantic after all._**

**_So what do you suggest?_**

**_Well, tell him. Show him, and prove it without a shadow of a doubt._**

**_How poetic._**

**_I'm an artist after all._**

**_Alright... I'll do it... so long as you promise me something._**

**_What?_**

**_You'll try. You'll at least try. I don't mean drastic or anything... I mean at least gradually. _**

**_Emi..._**

**_No, you're a girl. My sister. I want to see you happy. I want to see you the way you should be, the way you are on the inside. I know you Bella and I know that somewhere underneath all that fear is the sister that had a large population of Italian boys at her service at ten years old. I miss the BLV you, not this fake one._**

She didn't respond to that for a while.

_**I'll try...but...slowly. Very slowly.**_

_****__**Baby steps are the best steps to healing. Trust me, I understand...Let me know if you need anything okay?**_

_****__**I'll need a ride...and shopping advice.**_

_****__**I think I'll get Mercedes and Kurt to make you come along...You'll see. Soon I'll have to beat guys off you with a stick.**_

_****__**Hah hah hah, very funny.**_

_****__**Then when we go see la nostra famiglia they'll remember that we're guy-girl twins.**_

_****__**Shut it. Back to your love life! Have you tried being blunt?**_

_****__**How much more blunt can I get than damn near molesting him in the kitchen?**_

_****__**Oh, there's a step past that... For Your Entertainment...**_

_****__**You're not suggesting.**_

_****__**They say Italians are the most passionate lovers and some of the best dancers... I wonder why Sei_Master?**_

_****__**Now it's your turn to shut up. I'll think about. Have you done your homework?**_

_****__**Yes.**_

_****__**Brushed your teeth?**_

_****__**Yes.**_

_****__**Bathed?**_

_****__**Yes! What are you my mother?**_

_****__**No, I'm your brother...I'm the one that's giving you away when you get married, remember that.**_

_****__**Shut up, I don't plan on getting married.**_

_****__**You say that now...but I remember hearing about your wedding plans with Ma. You're such a simple girl.**_

_****__**Shut up and go to bed. By the way, beware of Rachel... she's a little over the top.**_

_****__**What did she say to you?**_

_****__**She implied that my talents warranted singing background for her.**_

_****__**Oh... yeah, she does that. We usually just ignore her. **_

_****__**Why have you not knocked that girl down a peg or nine?**_

_****__**Why don't you do it? I'm a male lead... we could use another female one.**_

_****__**What about Mercedes?**_

_****__**Schuester uses her for background...I agree that she could blow Rachel out of the water with a little work. Though if you want immediate results...**_

_****__**Are you implying something?**_

_****__**You could always audition... Really. Have a Diva-off with Rachel.**_

**___Hell no, that's the last thing I need._**

**_Baby steps...I know your real voice is another one of those things Mili, come on. I know you. I know you never stopped singing, you love it too much. Baby steps._**

**_I'm pouting...but you present a good point. I'll audition tomorrow... if you sing with me again._**

**_Phantom of the Opera?_**

**_You know me so well._**

**_It's a freaky twin thing._**

The next morning she arrived at school and went with Emiliano and the rest of Glee to the Auditorium for her audition, set up after they'd found a violin for Emiliano and a synthesizer for her to play.

"Why does she get to audition with her brother? She can't carry her own weight?" Rachel asked with a pout as Kurt stared up and waved his hand in front of her face to silence her.

When he started playing the beginning and repeated it to make sure he was in tune. Kurt and Rachel froze with the familiar tune coming from Emiliana's keyboard and Emiliano's violin as they tuned.

"They're going to attempt the Phantom of the Opera?" Will asked a little intrigued.

"They can't! No one our age could sing that."

She glared at Emiliana who turned a microphone to her, "For future reference, this is only so I don't have to speak loud. We're singing a bit of a mash-up because my dear brother mad me loose a bet."

He chuckled and began to play as she turned on the synthesizer to begin the back beat and turned off the microphone to prove a point.

"In sleep he sang to me... In dreams he came..., that voice which calls to me and speaks my name. And do I dream again For now I find... the phan-tom of the opera is there inside my mind..."

Will swallowed nervously at the warm tone of her voice.

_"Sing once again with me... our strange duet. My power over you, grows stronger yet. And though you turn form me to glance behind, to glance behind. The phan-tom of the opera is there inside your mind."_

_The group of Glee kids stared in amazement at the pair as the end of the song approached and Rachel sat on the edge of her seat waiting for her to fail._

_"He's there... the phantom of the opera...Ah~..."_

_"Sing my angel of Music."_

___No! No! No!_

It was impossible right? There had to be a trick right. No one their age, that unexperienced, could sing that end like _that_. No! No! She didn't want to believe that this girl was in Vocal Adrenaline and they let her go so easily with a voice like _that_. She was going to steal the spotlight Rachel loved so much, she was going to steal her spotlight with Emiliano. It was impossible but as the last note sounded, high, crisp with her picking at her nails as she switched the music of the synthesizer and Emiliano's playing changed to an aria. Will knew it and knew it from a movie, Puck tilted his head at the familiar tone while Rachel nearly had a melt down in her seat.

"Isn't that the blue chick's song from _Fifth Element?" _He asked.

"Yeah..." Kurt said and sat back with a happy grin. Talk about pummeling the competition. Donnizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor? How much more awesome can she- never mind. He and Mercedes clapped loudly, cheering with the rest of Glee as the song switched to the "Diva's Dance" by Inva Mula also in _Fifth Element. _If her brother was amazing, she had to be _phenomenal_, he'd heard that a voice like that could only be inherited and that only brought up more questions about who their mother was...she was an opera singer, but what was her stage name? Did she have one? One name came to mind, _Maria Callas..._

The sound of his sister's voice reminded him of his mother and he swore standing there, playing the violin and watching his sister close her eyes and lose herself in the song, he could see his mother smiling at her. She was definitely on her way to healing if he was singing like that.

The high note, she hit with all the theatricality of an opera singer made Rachel's triumphant look evaporate. There was no competiting with the lungs of an opera singer's daughter, a fighter, a swimmer... Rachel had no chance. Everyone noticed her lengthening 'd lost herself to the song, the feeling, the joy of singing on stage with her real voice. The voice her mother had given her and trained her to hone. More than the original she added more, her heart, her soul, and all the pain until they weren't really sure if she knew the song or not, and it didn't matter. The manipulation of her voice only deepened Rachel's obvious depression as she ended the song with the sweep of her hand and Emiliano scooped her up into a crushing hug.

"_Lo so! E 'stato fantastico Emiliana, non posso credere che tu non pratica!_" She laughed feeling lighter than she had in a long time.

It felt good, perfect, marvelous, to sing that way. Singing that way, she felt her mother smiling at her. Maybe there was a such thing as baby steps and her voice was slowly becoming her gift instead of her curse. Maybe she was healing after all as the Glee club, excluding Rachel and Finn cheered for her. She was still laughing with her brother, hugging him tightly.

"We are going to Nationals!" Will announced, "Welcome to Glee!"

She grinned up at Emiliano who kissed her forehead, "Mama would be proud of you."

She smiled, "I think I can handle...toddler steps."

He smiled as the members of Glee rushed the stage to congradulate her, "Damn girl you've got some lungs!"

"I didn't know anyone could sing like that! How long did it take you to learn that song?" Tina asked.

"I've known them for a long time. Mama was an opera singer and she'd sung every song except the Diva's Dance... that one was all me."

"That's amazing..."

"I disagree!" Rachel butted in earning a groan from the group.

"Let it go, Rachel. She's better than you."

"She sung Opera, that's not a show choir thing! You can't sing that and dance at the same time! It completely defeats the idea of show choir!"

Emiliana laughed, "Miss Rachel Berry..." she began. "I guarentee that I can sing anything you can while dancing and out last you. There's no competiting with the lungs of an opera singer, trust me...Just let it go."

She growled and stomped her foot, "You're on!"

She pulled off her sweater and Emiliana rolled her eyes as the members of Glee vacated the stage and took their seats. Kurt never thought seeing Rachel Berry get trounced wouldfeel so good if it wasn't him doing the trouncing. He admitted that he was good, but he wasn't Emiliana's level of good... no. Not yet anyway. They went through about for dance routines, with Emiliana spinning circles around Rachel in perfect pitch. Three songs later Rachel was out of breath and Emiliana crossed her arms.

"Had enough?" She asked evenly earning nothing but a growl. "Look, Berry. I'm not here to take your spotlight. I don't even like Glee all that much. My purpose here is to be closer to my brother and get back at Vocal Adrenaline. I'm sure we can agree on the fact that we want to win Regionals right?"

She huffed.

"Don't look at it like an invasion! This is a blessing, we could use a voice like hers-"

Rachel cut Finn off, "She's stealing my spotlight! Can't you see! She's only here to make me weak, and therefore the whole team weak! She's a spy for Vocal Adrenaline!"

"F.Y.I.: Emiliana hates Vocal Adrenaline more than we do and you're just angry because she has a better voice than you." Kurt replied and she gasped.

"I am not angry! And she does not have a better voice than me! She doesn't have anything going for her but that ridiculous range! Who even uses those notes in songs except opera singers? THIS is show choir, not opera! She doesn't even belong here!"

Emiliana watched her and shook her head at the obvious desperation in her voice. She was worse than Tonya, and _that_ had been bad.

"Rachel," she said calmly. "I'm only going to say this once...so please listen up."

She glared at the taller girl.

"I don't really care if you like me, because well I'm not too fond of whiny little _cagna_ who turn my friends into whiny little _cagna _ and against me, so here's the deal. You need to get over the fact that no one really likes you and the only reason no one has hit you in the face yet is because you're a girl and you have been dubbed the 'backbone' of Glee by our own favoritist Will Schuester. It's over Berry, you now have more competition than you did before... someone who obviously has more classical training and natural talent in a strand of hair than you have in your whole being. I hate you, you hate me and I am perfectly fine with that, but do understand that I am not the type to back down from any challenge, on the stage or otherwise..."

"Emiliana-"

"Don't test me," she warned, cutting Will off. "You _will _lose, Berry."

With that she stomped her foot, "You may be in Glee but you will _never_ be better than me!"

"Let the battle begin short stuff."

She left the auditorium and Emiliana smiled after her, turning to the rest of Glee. "I think that went well huh?"

They gawked at her, half in awe half in shock. No one ever spoke to Rachel like that. Her brother shrugged it off as America making her soft. She wasn't sure if it was the memory of the countless conversations about the large nosed tiny person that made her speak like that or the resulting ebb of self-empowerment that came with using the voice he mother gave her. She didn't really care.

Romano: 1

Berry: 0

Let the Games Begin.


	8. This House is a Home

Sorry it's been a while, I'm getting back into the swing of writing... sort of! Anyway, I might be moving all my fanfics to my blog to make my life a bit easier...(I keep forgetting my password and it's getting to be a pain...) But I'm not sure,so I'll let you readers that are actually reading this know as soon as I figure it out myself!

Onto the story!

* * *

**The running filled her ears and before she knew it he was on top of her, ripping at her clothing and shoving a gun into her mouth to keep her silent. The snickering, the rope around her wrists, around the posts, pulling, tugging, biting into her skin. The laughter, his laughter, the steel, the pain, the fear choked her and leaked from her eyes as the knife tore through her clothing. They, him, she, her, they wrestled her wriggling flailing body down to the ground and subdued her under those eyes of dark light that seared her soul, disfigured her life, and still haunted her in her dreams. That monster that held her fragile little world in his hands and crushed it, maimed, destroyed, killed it for the sake of his own sickness. His name was Justin.**

******"Shut up, Emily!" Emily, they called her Emily. She hated that name. She hated the feel of his body pinning her down, she hated herself for being so powerless to stop it.**

******Emily, Emily, Emily. Emily, Emily, my name is Emily. Emily. EMILY. Emily. Emily. I am not here, not here, not here. Not here, fratello, I'm not here. Where? Where else?Home?**

******"I want to go home! Help! Fratello, ho paura! Ho paura! Salvami! SALVAMI!"**

**"SHUT YOUR FACE, YOU LITTLE BITCH!" He screamed and fought her wriggling panic.**

******She knew she wasn't Emily. That she was there, that this was happening and a part of her would always know that it was her fault that this happened... If only she was strong...If only she had stayed with her fratello. If only she'd died in that explosion. But no, that didn't matter. Right now she was Emily, the object of this bastards obssession, a weak little girl. When the pistol came down across her face she screamed, the second, third...fifth time? There was nothing but a gurgle of blood as she bit down on her tongue hard enough to bleed and her teeth tore into the lining of her mouth. The pain surged and echoed in wave of trauma that would later ruin her life. She found a bit of solace in the fact that her jaw didn't feel broken but her ribs probably would be as steel toed boots dug into her side and someone-**

She sat up screaming, trembling, clutching her heart and wrapping herself in her blankets tightly. Her hand traced the curve of her cheek where she'd healed from the abuse and breathed remembering she was no longer there. No longer anywhere near that monster, that family, that place. The gun had been a long time ago...the fading scar on her shoulder was proof that it was over, the healed burn, now only a slightly discolored patch in the shape of "J. + E. 4Ever" was proof that was over... Then why was she so damned scared? As her heart slowed, she realized her phone was ringing off the hook. She picked it up and hit TALK, still trembling with those chilling memories.

"H-Hello?"

_Good job Mili, you want the person on the other side to know that you just woke up from a nightmare?_

"Caro Dio, Milli what's the matter?"

_Damnit, it had to be, Fratello..._

She sighed at the sound of her brother's warm voice and was thankful that Brenita had the late shift tonight and wouldn't be home for a few hours. The last thing she wanted to deal with her worrying about her tormented past and how that's affecting her future...She just didn't want to have to deal with another possible midnight call to the psychiatrist that she would never talk to...even if she had to go through that again...Never. _Never._

"I-...It was just a nightmare..."

"You're lying. It was more than a nightmare...what happened?"

She evaded his question, "How did you know something was wrong?"

"Creepy twin thing," he quipped.

Her phone beeped with a message.

**Message from Jesse:**

**Are you alright?**

She frowned at the message and sighed. There was no reason why he would know something as personal like her having a nightmare...It wasn't as if they were still attached at the hip like they used to be. She didn't bother to reply and sighed into the receiver. Her life had suddenly been shifted a little closer to normality and much closer to chaos.

"I'm fine...it's just a nightmare."

"You're lying. I'm coming over."

She huffed. It had been about a month since they'd found each other and two weeks since her face off with Rachel Berry. Needless to say the midget of a soprano was still fuming about her perpetual defeat, most of the guys on the team treated her like a boy, and she was adjusting well...She hadn't had a nightmare since they moved until tonight... Then again, no one had attempted to seduce her in the span of time she'd been there either. It just wasn't something that she was used to...maybe she hadn't concealed her figure as well as she'd thought she did.

_Stupid jocks and their hormones..._

**_She didn't bother to climb the bleachers as football and Cheerios practice let out. Emiliano waved at her across the field and jogged towards her to say, "I'll be out in flash. Promise."_**

**_"Take your time, take a shower. You stink."_**

**_He laughed and hugged her despite that and headed into the locker room. It was one of those rare days she tested herself, just a little. It wasn't much to the outside world, but Emiliano beamed at the small change and did his best not to make it awkward. Kurt noticed, Mercedes noticed, and of course _he _noticed. She was wearing her hair down and instead of the huge sleep time t-shirt she usually sported, she wore a little less than form fitting sweatshirt. It skimmed her body enough to give the illusion of a bad form, but didn't make her look too much like a boy. She just seemed either really flat, or portly. Either way it didn't matter, it was step and soon she figured she could handle going into a clothing store and buying a new set of bras, she doubted the ones she had fit anymore. After all the dojo wrapping and suppression of her breasts, she was a little scared to get fitted... What if she really was like a D cup or something? She was fairly sure she wouldn't be able to handle that type of attention._**

**_"Hey, you his girlfriend?"_**

**_She looked up to the towering jock still in his uniform. He had a slight All-American air and look to him. He could have been a poster boy for American breeding. She almost threw up a little at the resemblance to He-Who-She-Never-Wanted-To-Remember._**

**_"No," she replied. "I'm his sister."_**

**_He blinked, "You're the girl that doused the team in slushie?"_**

**_She smirked a little with pride, "Yes."_**

**_His eyes glazed over in awe and a smirk snuck its way onto his face. She knew that look, it was the same one that had accompanied the name "Emily" and she didn't like it at all. It made her nervous and defensive, scared and defiant. She would never go back to being that way again. Never. She took a slight step back defensively._**

**_"Listen," he started. "I understand you're fresh from Mount Carmel...on that team Vocal Adrenaline right?"_**

**_She nodded waiting for the punch line of this rather long joke. It wasn't getting any funnier and in a second she'd be raising her fists and spinning into a high heel kick... She was relaxed enough now to reach his neck if not his face at the moment._**

**_"You were right not to join the Gleeks, after all your brother's standing can only protect you so much around here...How about you let me take you out this Friday after the game?"_**

**_She blinked as he leered at her, getting closer and closer to her. She stepped back in standard stance that probably meant nothing to him as she continued to creep back away from him and her hand tightened into fists._**

**_"You're a cute little thing even with all those clothes on you...I wouldn't mind dating you if you lost the dyke look... I bet you have killer legs underneath those baggy jeans..."_**

**_"Mili!"_**

**_She turned her head to see her brother and Kurt at the end of the hallway and coming closer as the boy looked up from preying on her and over to Emiliano. He stepped back with a slick smile, "Let me know, huh?"_**

**_He walked away and she headed towards the boys. Running over the encounter in her head, she was sure she'd been asked out on a date,... and insulted in the process..._**

**_"What was that about?"_**

**_"I think he was trying to ask me on a date." She replied as they headed towards the parking lot. Kurt called shotgun and she slid into the back, laying down as her head began to pound with dark memories and anxiety. She realized then that she'd never taken any type of pain medication for it._**

**_"You alright?"_**

**_"Yeah, just confused. Is it normal to insult the girl you're trying to ask out?"_**

**_"Only with stupid jocks," Kurt replied as they pulled out of the driveway._**

She dreaded having to face the nameless jock again the next day and shivered at the proximity. Some part of her was screaming bloody murder as she got out of bed and went downstairs to sit on the porch. A few minutes later Emiliano ran up her driveway, the porch steps, and stood in front of her, panting with worry and the attack of cold air on his lungs.

"Are you alright?" He asked as she stood and lead him into the kitchen area.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"Drink something hot, you're shivering and stop avoiding my question."

She chewed on her lip, brining the teapot to a boil and making hot cocoa for the both of them, just hot enough to warm them against the Mid-October night. She took a seat and curled her legs up to her chest in the chair as he took a seat across from her, watching her with analyzing eyes.

"I'm fine."

"You're lying."

She pouted and sipped her hot chocolate, glaring at him. "Just because you know doesn't mean you have to point it out."

"I wouldn't have to point it out if you would just tell me the truth."

She nodded in defeat and got up to sit beside him and lean into him.

"It's nothing I can't fight."

"You mean it's something you're running from..."

"Emi-"

"You don't have to lie to me, Mili. I know you and even though we've been apart for a long time, that doesn't mean you're not still my dear sister. So stop lying, are you afraid?"

She hesitated, until he took her hand and pulled her off the chair and into his arms. Sitting in his lap, wrapped up in familiar arms, and soaking up his body heat, she nodded in defeat. There wasn't anything she could ever hide from him.

"Yes."

"Do you want to stay afraid?"

"No."

"Are you going to listen to my plan?"

"Do I have a choice?"

He grinned. Sarcasm meant she was feeling better and he kissed her cheek for it, squeezing her a bit before he continued.

"Slowly. Very Slowly, I mean the changes don't even have to be drastic but they will occur..." He gave her a pointed look and she pouted. "Your hair down and the smaller sweatshirt was a good start."

"Oh yeah?" She asked. "I don't have many feminine clothes."

"You say that as if we don't have two fashionable men and a fashionable woman in our phone book."

"I hope you're not talking about Rachel."

He blinked and shoved her a little, "Don't be silly. We'll go this weekend after the game. I mean it. Everything from underwear...dresses...all that."

She flushed at the idea of that happening. It was more of a phobia of what could happen, the situations she could be placed in, the scorn, the appreciation... She shook her head free of those thoughts. She needed to do this...if not for herself, then her family, her brother, the aunt, uncles and cousins that thought they were dead. She couldn't go home the way she was...she knew that, she'd always known that. But she never thought she would be able to go home without her brother...and here he was. So it was time to stop running, no more excuses, no more lies...No more hiding from him or from herself.

"Mili?"

She smiled up a him, "Alright."

He grinned," Good...now what's the catch?"

"Oh, you know me so well. You'd better treat Kurt right..."

Emiliano blinked and kissed her cheek, "You know me well...Now tell me a bit more about this Jesse character that's blowing up your phone."

She scoffed, not even bothering to glance at the ever beeping phone. Emiliana was a woman of her word, when she said he was excommunicated, she did mean she wasn't talking to him under any circumstance. She only kept the number in her phone so that she knew which one not to answer.

"He's no one...just someone I trusted and shouldn't have..."

"Oh yeah? This is Jesse , right? The one that looked like he wanted to kill me, the one in the picture beside your bed."

She huffed, "Yes. If you must know, now go home!"

He laughed and stood with her to head towards the door. His sister may not have realized it but she really did like Jesse if her body language was anything to go by. There was a sliver of pain running through her eyes though and he was sure she'd tell him the entire story one day.

"Now that I'm sure you're alright, I'm sure you'll get off to bed on your own. Don't forget! This weekend!"

She nodded and bid him goodnight, watching him walk off into the dawn before she headed back to bed. By the time she was warm in her bed, her phone beeped again.

**New Message from Jesse:**

**Are you still not talking to me?**

She scoffed, _What did he think?_ Did he think that after the hell she'd been put through and having him rubbing what little she'd allowed him to know in her face was going to make her forgive him? Was he stupid? Or did he really think she needed him that much. She shrugged. It didn't matter, she was going to forget and forgive. Forget it all, get over it and go back to that time before she'd lost everything...she was going back to Italy and she never planned on coming back to this god forsaken country called America.

_Home of the free, land of the brave, my ass. More like Home of the socially enslaved, land of the deranged._

It's too bad that morning's past are not something you can return too... If they were, Jesse would not be as miserable as he was the next morning as some junior girl sucked him off in an empty classroom before he screwed her into the desk. She wasn't ugly, nor was she desperate...neither was he. She was the replacement for Emiliana, while she wasn't as good, she was good enough for Vocal Adrenaline. She wasn't that bad with all that curly black hair everywhere while she took his thrusts and bit back moans of pleasure. She wasn't that bad at all...whatever her name was...but she wasn't Emiliana and that was the biggest issue.

She wasn't here!She was nowhere to be found at all! Emiliana hadn't returned a text, a word, a goodbye, nothing! And it was just another one of those days he felt extremely stupid as he screamed his last solo with more pain than he'd put into his voice for a very long time. Shelby and the rest of the team noticed and said nothing as he left after practice, getting into his car, and driving past the house he used to share breakfast with Emiliana and Brenita. He parked in front of the house and stared at the empty house, feeling the emptiness consume him. Goddamn he missed her, missed her so much his heart was tearing through his chest.

The silence of the car ended when his phone rang. His mother, in her normal business tone addressed him over the phone.

"Jesse, are you there?"

"Yes, Mother. What is it?"

"Your father and I are being transfered to Delhi, we're moving at the end of the month."

He blinked, "What?"

"You heard me, now I understand that you don't speak Hindi but a month is plenty of time to learn if you don't want to go into an American school there."

"I'm not going to India," he said.

He wasn't sure where it had come from, he wasn't even sure that he had the option. He'd never been so determined to defy someone as he was right then. India? Did she understand that it was his senior year? Regionals were around the corner not to mention Nationals! He wasn't going to give up his show choir career and main chance of getting out of stupid Ohio, if he had any say in it.

"You're just being irrational. We'll talk more when your father and I come home next week. Our trip has been extended a little longer."

"Between today and next week or whenever you choose to show up on the doorstep won't change my answer. I'm finishing my senior year here in Ohio."

He hung up the phone with a savage jab on the END button and hissed through his teeth before pulling out of the driveway of the empty house to go back to his own empty house. When he arrived there was a familiar black car in the driveway, he pulled up, locked his doors, and bounded into the house excitedly. There was only one person that could ever drive that car and excite him that much.

"Uncle Will!" He yelled and was met with a warm laugh from the den as he ran in and crashed on the couch beside him.

His Uncle William was married to one of the sweetest women in the world with no children and at age thirty, looked like he could pass for at least a college aged student. Unlike Jesse's father, he lead a very stress free and happy filled life. If there was anyone that he would gladly live with, talk about anything with, it would be William and Helen St. James. They were the closest things he ever had to real parents.

"You're here to visit me?"

"Something like that...My brother called to tell me that you were all moving to Delhi before the end of the year..."

Jesse swallowed, "Uncle Will I-"

"I know what yuo're going to say, son. And Helen agrees with me...we want you to come live with us."

He blinked, "Really?"

"If you come, you'll have to transfer to Mckinley, but we figured that you want to at least finish your last here in Ohio rather than half way across the world..."

"I want to...stay with you."

He grinned, "That's what I thought. Now you know we'll have to talk to your parents about it right?"

"Not really-"

"They have to give their consent for you to change schools...not to mention custody and all that..."

"I'm sure they won't mind..."

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT TO STAY HERE?" Richard bellowed at Jesse who was sitting on a bar stool eating a sand which and doing his Calculus. "What on Earth makes you think that you're old enough to make that type of decision or that we'd even consider leaving you here?"

"What difference is it between what you do now?"

The resounding sharp sound of impacting flesh against flesh would echo through his mind forever. Jesse chuckled a bit and looked at his father, not even bothering to touch the spot where his father had probably succeeded in giving him a beautiful shiner. Next time he would know what he was worth in that house for real. No. There would be no next time...they were going to Delhi and he was transferring to McKinley, into a household that would come see him perform, love him, and treat him like a human being not a house pet that they got tired of taking care of. There would be no next time as he walked towards his room and his mother, with her swimming blue eyes glanced at the place at the bar that he'd vacated and went back to sipping her fifth glass of wine for the night.

"JESSE St. JAMES!" Richard bellowed charging after him as Jesse slammed and locked his door shut, packed his bag for an over night trip, grabbed his keys and headed out his bathroom window.

By the time Richard realized that Jesse was no longer in there, Jesse was knocking on his Uncle's front door with his bag, a pitiful face,a darkening eye, and a ringing back pocket. Helen answered the door with those soft,warm, hazel eyes that glittered with unshed tears before opening her arms to him and closing the door once he was safely in her embrace. William came in with a bag of ice wrapped with a towel a few moments later and guided the pair into the living room.

"I want to stay with you," he said softly while Helen pressed the cool make-shift ice pack to his face.

"You know you're always welcome here,Jesse." She said.

"Do they know you're here?" William asked coming back with Helen's personal first aid kit and taking a seat beside them.

"They'll figure it out eventually if they aren't too drunk."

Helen gasped and swatted his leg. "Jesse! They are still your parents be more respectful."

"They don't act like it."

She sighed knowing there was no use arguing with him about it. William would have agreed and though she would never say it, she agreed as well. She kissed his forehead.

"There are still some of your clothes from this summer in your room upstairs. Go take shower so you can eat and I can take care of that bruise. Be sure not to make it worse."

With Helen being a trained EMS personnel for Lima, Ohio's only hospital, Jesse could not remember a single occurrence when he was with his Aunt and Uncle, even before they were married, that his accidental scrapes and bruises were not treated immediately, efficiently, and with the utmost care. He even got candy after the little accidents and a chance to help in the kitchen. Sadly, in his own house the scrapes, bruises, burns, skids, and other scars of childhood were never treated until the maid called his aunt and uncle and by then they were already scaring. The burn that used to stretch across his back from the house exploding as a child, had faded into a barely noticeable stretch of lighter skin; however, the memory still haunted him and sometimes he woke up sweating with the distant and immediate memory of the fire he had been trapped in. His back burned and it took a long talk with Emiliana to calm him down. He'd never told her what happened only that he had nightmares...

_Damn, I'm thinking about her again..._

That was the last thing he needed as he came downstairs to hear the some-what familiar voices of his parents over Helen's soft and stern voice, Uncle William's voice mixed in with hers as well and he sat on the steps watching them around the corner.

"Where the hell is my son Bill?" Richard roared and as usual.

"He's here," he replied. "And I'll be damned if you try to take him away-"

"He's my son!"

"Have you ever acted like it?" William countered.

"What I do with my family is none of your business!"

"It becomes my business when you put my nephew directly in harm's way. Think about this logically Richard, do you even remember when your son's last performance was? His birthday? Have you met any of his friends? Do you know what his last solo was? Have you ever been to a Parent- Teacher Conference? Do you know when his last open house was? Do you even know what's his favorite color?"

The room went silent as Richard and Catherine searched their brain to find an answer.

"Will, hon," Helen started with that sweet southern accent to calm her husband. "Please Richard, Catherine, have a seat..."

They glared, but did so. Jesse was beside himself watching the altercation. Where his Uncle Will had the brute strength of voice, Helen had the finesse of a professional at calming people, especially drunk people down. He couldn't count the number of times his aunt came back after her shift smelling like alcohol and vomit after attending to some drunken party of home-for-the-holidays-college students. William always smiled, kissed her gently, and had a bubble bath waiting for her... Of course what else transpired in that bubble bath, considering they both came out with different clothes and satisfied smiles, was not something he was willing to get into. Thinking of his Aunt and Uncle having sex was not something he really wanted to think about.

"Richard, Catherine, we are not trying to take Jesse away from you. He is your son and we respect that...We are only asking that you take into consideration what you would be doing to Jesse in his Senior year. Half way through his senior year? With Regionals a little more than a month away? You want to take him so far from everything he's ever known, when he has family right here that can take care of him? Please...just think about it."

"He's my son, and I say he's coming with his parents to Delhi at the end of the month."

Helen sighed and Jesse got up to walk towards the den.

"Alright, I've tried it your way, babe." Helen said standing and towering over the pair with swimming eyes. " I'm doing it my way now."

"Helen-"

"To get Jesse permanently removed from your custody before his 18th birthday next year, won't take much if you refuse to relinquish his custody the easy way. Mind you, it won't take much to prove that you're unfitting parents...need I remind you that you started that fire that damn near killed Jesse!"

"Helen,baby, "William started catching sight of Jesse coming into the room.

"You can do this the easy way and leave him here where he's actually wanted and cared for, or you can try and drag him onto that plane and go to jail. Take your pick..."

They stared at her in disbelief that she was actually threatening them and Richard surged to his feet to attack her and before he realized it he was on the floor moaning in pain with Jesse glaring down at him.

"How dare you-"

The sickening crunch of his jaw underneath Jesse's fist cut him off and it wasn't until Richard was bleeding and gurgling on the floor that William and Helen managed to pull him off. William carted him into the kitchen as Helen attempted to begin some preliminary first-aid before Richard flailed and pushed her off and against the couch. William was back and hauling his brother off the floor and out of the house and onto the cold pavement,throwing his jacket and keys after him. Catherine followed shortly after of her own accord.

"I'll get you for this William," Richard growled through the blood in his mouth.

"Be glad it was Jesse that punched you before you'd hi my wife," he closed and locked the door going into the kitchen where Helen was scolding, or at least trying to scold him.

"Jesse Henry , what were you thinking! Hitting your father is not something I'll condone in this house, or at all! You should know better! OH and now your hand and your father's face. William, make him sit down somewhere so I can tend to his face."

"You don't really think I let that man stay in my house after he tried to hit you, do you?" William asked grabbing a bottle of water out of the refridgerator.

"You don't mean you threw an injured man out do you?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean love. Good Hook, Jess'."

"Thanks."

"You two! How am I supposed to do my job with you two around?"

William smiled as she turned to smack him a bit, "You know that was extremely irresponsible of you! What type of example are you setting Jesse?"

"I'm teaching him how to eliminate stress from his life."

"Oh, that's not going to work on me William Henry St. James!"

"Yes it will," he said softly pulling her closer as she pushed on his chest and yelled at him.

"I will have your head for this! Go out there and make sure your brother is okay."

"That's what his wife is for...you know your southern accent comes out more when you're angry?"

Jesse leaned back keeping the ice on his hand and watching the interaction as William hugged Helen close and kissed her protests away until she was staring up at him in wonder.

"Do you really think that his safety is of any of my concern once he made up his mind to hit you?"

"B-But he didn't..." She protested, whimpering a little as he pulled her closer and kissed her neck.

"But he was going to if Jesse hadn't swooped into your rescue, darling..."William said softly, kissing her again. "Don't scold him, hon. He was only protecting you...and working out a bit of pent up anger at the same time."

"Will!"

He laughed at her indignation and kissed her again as Jesse just looked on with amusement...Their marriage was something he always admired...It was like what a textbook marriage was supposed to be. Happy,loving, a system of give, take, and co-existence... Since the first time he saw them together before William popped the question, he'd wanted that. From the moment he'd met Emiliana, he'd wanted that with her...He still had dreams about it, but woke up depressed at the impossible nature of the dream. She hated him.

"Now, dinner time! Lasagna's done and I'll got find the paperwork so we can get started."

Jesse blinked, "You were serious?"

"Of course, "Helen said, pulling the lasagna out of the oven and avoiding the overly affectionate William in the process...at least until he caught her around the waist and kissed her cheek gently.

Jesse set up the table, much to Helen's protests, and served them in turn as Helen explained the paperwork to get adopted. As a minor he didn't really have much say in the matter other than the basic "I don't feel safe, taken care for, etc." He and William washed dishes as Helen made a phone call or two and they sent him off to bed with an ice cream cone and goodnight kisses just to mess with him. He crawled into bed, careful of his hand and eye patch, and for a moment he felt a real smile creeping onto his face. Is this what home was supposed to feel like?


	9. You're Right, It Wouldn't

Friday came quicker than anyone expected. Emiliano smiled at his dear sister when he saw her early that morning. It wasn't drastic, nothing anyone else would have really noticed...but he noticed, Kurt noticed, the guys noticed...hell even Brittany noticed that something had changed. She was wearing a button up shirt and jeans that actually looked like might have been her size. Mind you there were only hints of a figure through the clothes, but it was improvement and that's what counted. Not to mention the color of royal blue always looked good on her...and they were wearing the same colored shirt...probably the same shirt too.

"Freaky twin fashion thing..." Mercedes commented as she came up to them. "Are we still on for this weekend?"

"Yep," Emiliano answered taking his sister's books from her hands much to her annoyance. She snatched them back only to have them gracefully lifted from her hands and pulled against him to march down the hall towards class with Mercedes and Kurt at either side.

"I'm your sister not your girlfriend," she groaned. "I'm not even your _little_ sister either, remember?"

"True, but people don't completely realize that yet. Furthermore, heaven forbid I let my dear sister get snatched up and end up killing someone before lunch. I have a surprise for you!"

She wanted to be angry, but laughter came out instead. Why was her brother so insane? She would never figure it out, but let him guide/escort her, Mercedes, and Kurt to class, kiss her forehead and be off to the other side of the school.

"Your brother loves you," Mercedes pointed out. "A lot."

"Yeah... it has more to do with my progress than his actual level of caring for me..."

They walked into class ignoring the few sneers as they took their seats.

"What brother wouldn't be proud of a strong girl as his sister?" Kurt asked a little confused.

She shrugged, he had a point. During the week,as she made baby steps towards the new version of herself, she'd gotten more questions about whether she were dating her brother or Puck than them asking what her name was. She'd always been a strong girl, emotionally...physically, so she could understand her brother's care around her. He wanted what she wanted: her to have the ability to take care of herself. Santana had confronted her about it too...that had been just weird.

**_"I need to talk to you new girl..." She'd said and Emiliana turned around to follow her, curious about what she wanted._**

**_"What's up, Santana?"_**

**_"Look," she started with a whirl of her Cheerios uniform. "I don't know what he's told you, but he's mine."_**

**_"Okay..." she replied. "I'm not sure what you're talking about..."_**

**_"I see you getting cozy with the guys, I'm just staking the fact that Puck is mine, my boyfriend, as in not yours...so back off, alright?"_**

**_"Uh...I'd hate to say it...but I would never date Noah...and I'm fairly sure the idea of dating me has never crossed his mind."_**

**_"What?" She asked._**

**_"Yeah, I'm Emiliano's sister remember? Puck has some morals about dating his friend's sisters...It's just never come up because no one else has a sister in high school."_**

**_"I'm not sure I'm following you,you're not after Puck?"_**

**_"Uh...no. He's like a brother to me. That's disgusting..."_**

**_She blinked, "I'm not sure if I believe you or not."_**

**_"Santana...I am the last person you have to worry about being with Puck...really. I'm an honorary Bro', really. That's just nasty."_**

**_Santana left the room a little bit confused and Puck came in right after her with a questioning look._**

**_"She thought that I wanted to date you."'_**

**_He gave that fake hurt look, "You don't? How can you resist me?"_**

**_"Easy, your nickname's Puck."_**

**_He grabbed her and put her in a head lock and rubbed his knuckle against the top of her head._**

**_"If you weren't the Girl Emi, I'd have thrown you in the dumpster for that!"_**

**_"You don't throw girl's in dumpsters Noah and you know it."_**

**_He let her go, "Touche, Girl Emi. Let's go find the rest of the guys."_**

She laughed a little as she took her seat on the bleachers for the game. Her brother waved up to her and gave a heated look to Kurt, who sat right next to her. With any luck they might actually win the damned game.

"Mercedes over here!"She waved her up and Mercedes joined them as the game began.

"Are you a fan of football?"

"No," she replied. "I'm a soccer kind of girl."

Kurt nodded and bit his lip as Mercedes turned around finally tired of watching the game.

"Alright, girl. I need you to be straight with me and my man Kurt here. Is your brother straight?"

She blinked,"Why are you asking?"

"Mercedes!" Kurt scolded.

"Are you interested in my brother, Kurt?" She asked, turning those piercing eyes on him.

"I-I..."

"Interested? How about drooling over him... I just want to know if my boy has any chance to win him over..."

Emiliana smiled and turned to Kurt, "You like my brother?"

The flush that spread all over his face was clue enough and she pinched his cheek.

"I'll let you guys figure it out, " she said with a cryptic smile.

"Oh, come on girl!" Mercedes whined before Emiliana met eyes with her with a revealing gaze.

"Oh..."

"Oh, is right. Hey Kurt, don't you have to be down there for half time with the Cheerios?"

He huffed and stood trotting down the stands to get to the Cheerios section as they assembled for Halftime. He slipped on his headset and sighed as the football teams ran into the locker rooms for a break and the stands cheered for the Cheerios' announcements. Seeing Emiliana tell Mercedes something that made her grin a little, made him feel a bi left out but as the Cheerios assembled and the football players cleared the field, it was time to throw that part of him aside and smile.

"5,6,7,8!" Sue called through the microphone and the routine started, it was one of the less spectacular ones by Sue's specs considering that they had more important things to prepare for...like the final pep rally that always served as a preview for the competitions. She needed another voice and if she couldn't have Mercedes...she'd have to find someone else. Glancing up at the puking thralls of teenagers in the stands, she spotted the diva and the new football player's twin...Yeah...Twin. Two people with the same face...and they're not even the same gender! Sneaky Twins...

The Cheerios finished and Kurt clambered back up as the football team took the field again and demanded them to tell him what was so funny.

The cryptic, "You'll find out soon enough." Was all he got as the finishing events of the game came up with Emiliano's stellar kick,winning the game and some pride for the Mckinley football team... Now if only they could keep this up for the rest of the year...

* * *

Emiliano grinned as his sister ran at him to hug him tightly over the victory.

"Whoo! You're better at soccer, but that's okay..." She said and he laughed sitting her down. "You were amazing by the way...I caught those tricky moves out there..."

He grinned, 'Between me and Puck, we're the only one's fast enough to do it. But, never mind that! I need a shower and then it's off to shopping!"

"Well hurry up then and we'll wait for you here." She said pushing him towards the locker room while his teammates began to trickle towards the doors. The nameless football player came up behind them while Emiliana was talking to Mercedes. She felt the presence before Mercedes said anything and spun around to see those same eyes looking down at her in interest... an interest that somewhat frightened her, somewhere deep inside.

"Hello again," he said. "I don't believe I caught your name last time..."

Before she'd realized it, before her mind came up with a god way to say "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" or "YOU SCARE THE FUCK OUT OF ME!" or even something more tame like "I'm a victim and you look like the attacker so I don't want you anywhere near me." a much more coy answer shoved it's way out of her mouth.

"You're right...you didn't ask."

He chuckled a bit and she almost heard the gears turning in Mercedes' and Kurt's head behind her. He stepped a bit closer and for some reason she didn't flinch, looking up into his cornflower blue eyes and all-American looks, including that smile he was sporting in either confidence or embarrassment. Probably the later from the slight tinge in his cheeks.

"Forgive me," he started. "I'm Alan...and you are?"

"Emiliana...though you probably already know that seeing as how my brother's on your team."

"I had an idea."

"You just wanted me to tell you then?"

"Something like that..." he said. "Have you given any thought about going out with me this weekend?"

She smiled a bit hearing the telltale footsteps of her brother coming up the ramp behind them.

"I have, but I've got plans this weekend."

"Rain check, then?" He asked a little hopefully as she stepped back to head to the car with them.

"We'll see," she replied, turning and following Kurt, Mercedes, and Emiliano to the parking lot.

The conversation played in her head at least three time before she got to the car and climbed into the front passenger seat while Mercedes and Kurt slid into the back. There had been a strange sense of peace and safety when talking to him...Something about the way he'd approached her hadn't set off the alarms that most guys do. The Glee guys didn't set off an alarm probably because they treated her so much like a guy. The second the light changed in their eyes, the bells would probably ring...But there was about as much ringing in her head right now as an empty school yard... Either he was gay, or she really didn't care for him at all.

They pulled up to the mall in between territory and Mckinley territory and hopped out. They'd made it to the first boutique Mercedes had on her list and decided to split up upon Mercedes' hinting facial expression.

"I've got my cellphone on me and take this," He handed over his own debit card to her and she stared up at him. "You already know the pin number."

"I can't do that-"

"You can and you will because I'm not giving you a choice. Call us when you're done. We'll meet up somewhere central."

He took Kurt's hand and pulled him away before his sister had anymore time to protest the generosity.

Mercedes smiled and guide Emiliana into the boutique to speak with the woman behind the counter with Emiliana at her side. The place was a shop that specialized in women's underwear. Emiliana swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around herself a bit tighter, the first notions of fear.

"My friend here needs to be fitted for a bra, she's never been fitted before so...is it possible if a female employee does it?"

"Sure, just this way. We'll need you to take off your shirt and your bra just behind the curtain and I'll be with you shortly."

She nodded heading towards the curtain and looked back at Merceds who nodded and smiled her support before she disappeared behind the curtain and breathed in slow. In, out, in, out... A calming mantra as she unzipped her jacket, pulled her shirt over her head and unwrapped the kendo tape and removed the suppressant sports bra. Standing in front of the mirror, half naked, for the first time in a long time, with her arms around her, covering her breasts, made a little swell of panic well up inside her. She couldn't do this, she just couldn't. This was insanity. She wasn't ready for this. By the time she'd swallowed her fear and made her body move to grabbed her clothes, the woman had come in with a measuring tape and a reassuring smile.

"Your friend, Mercedes, told me that this is your first time being fitted. Don't worry, everything will be fine. Just relax and hold out your arms."

She gulped down another breath slowly unwrapping her arms, trembling as the woman crossed the space to draw the curtain over the mirror and stand behind her.

"Better?"

She nodded a little a shivered as the measuring tape surrounded her bust line, then a bit higher over her breasts. The woman gave a low whistle and said, "All done" before leaving her to get dressed again.

She wasted no time pulling her clothes back on and stepping from behind the curtain,meeting Mercedes' eyes with only a smidgen of terror in her own. The woman took her to the other side of the store to point out the selection of bras they had in her size and she took Mercedes' advice on the sturdiness of them. She still couldn't believe her brother would be paying for all this and she wasn't even sure that this would go over well.

In his eyes, what the hell else was he supposed to do with his money? It wasn't as if he didn't have more of it coming in. He did sort of work for the military after all. He hadn't noticed that he was still holding Kurt's hand as they maneuvered their way to a different store. Kurt stopped slightly, pulling back.

"Kurt?" He asked turning back to see him looking at his feet, looking more vulnerable than he'd ever seen him.

"Y-You should let go. You don't want to be lumped in the fag of McKinley."

He blinked and turned around to slide his hands up to Kurt's shoulders and pull him a little closer. He was stiff and probably frightened, so he more or less stumbled closer to him.

"Don't call yourself that, it's unfitting. And if I want to be lumped in with you, would you mine being lumped with me?"

He didn't have a response but stared up at those lips to his eyes, to his lips again, never noticing that Emiliano was doing the same. He stepped back suddenly and whirled around towards a different store.

"I'll meet up with you later."

"Are you running from me, Kurt?" He asked,holding Kurt's hand hostage and stepping a little closer to him, breathing softly.

A shiver of need ran through him as Emiliano's breathe ghosted over the back of his neck and his proximity raised the hairs at the nape of his neck to attention. God he needed this to be true but too afraid to believe in it. Emiliano inhaled Kurt's scent and almost dragged the smaller boy somewhere a bit more private to ravage him a bit, but bit his lip to stave off the need to. There was no sense in rushing and having to start all over again... No, he needed to be patient.

"I don't run from anyone," he replied curtly.

"Good, because when I caught you...you'd never want to run again."

He whirled around at the words as Emiliano headed into the store they had been heading into. It was some version of Walmart in the mall center and he knew that if his dear sister had any say in it, this is where they would shopping...this and the thrift store. Furthermore, it was a good idea to start planning on what to get her as a present. He'd yet to find something suitable and figured he'd have to go somewhere else to do that.

"What did you mean by that?"

He smirked and didn't answer as his phone vibrated and rang in his pocket, "Hello?"

"Fratello, where are you?"

"In the pseudo-Walmart. Are you ready to go?"

"Y-Yeah...I think...Promise not to say anything awkward okay?"

"Sure thing, we'll meet you at the map at the entrance we came in."

"Alright, see you in a bit."

The drive home had been filled with a pregnant silence. Kurt in deep wonder about what exactly happened between them, was it a joke? Was he serious? Why couldn't he just be straight forward about it? Emiliano could almost here the gears turning in Kurt's head from behind him as he dropped Mercedes off with the promise to take her, Kurt, and Emiliana to the strip center sometime around noon the next day, then Emiliana who kissed his cheek and "_grazi_" before getting out of the car...and then there were two. The two of them in that car together driving back to their side of Lima. The silence stayed until he pulled up in the Logan drive way and walked Kurt to his door.

"I can't take it anymore," Kurt said once on his doorstep and he gripped his keys so hard that they were biting into his hands.

"What?"

"What is you-"

The door swung open and Finn stood towering over Kurt and a little below eye level with Finn. Their eyes met and Kurt huffed while Emiliano turned his eyes back to Kurt with all the intensity of the sun and the subtlety of the moon. Finn, while not the smartest person in the world was fairly observant...Emiliano was definitely giving Kurt the _look_, he wasn't sure which _the look_ it was but it was definitely a _look. _That was cause for alarm all by itself.

"Is...there a problem?"

"Goodnight, Kurt," Emiliano said softly, eyes locked with Kurt's Glasz orbs. "Finn."

He left and Kurt stared after him before biting his lip hard.

"Why was Emi looking at you like that?"

"I don't know."Kurt replied and walked past him into the house. "I'll get started on-"

The smell hit him and the realization that Carole had cooked dawned on him. He helped set the table and made some excuse not to eat right then, instead headed to his room to shower and wash away the thoughts and the doubts, even with those blue illusion orbs still staring at him every time he closed his eyes. He just hoped that the weekend and the shopping trip would take his mind off the possibility. No more Finn's...no more love, he promised himself.

Too bad Emiliano Aiden Romano had other plans for dear Kurt.

* * *

"Alright kids, here's your assignment for the end of the semester!" Will said excitedly shaking a hat filled with strips of folded up paper, early Monday morning.

"What's with the hat?" Finn asked," and why is it so long?"

It wasn't all that odd for him to come up with random ideas to get the team to work together more often, but rarely did it work out very well. This week was most likely no exception. Over the weekend, Emiliana had taken three hours a day to stare into her new wardrobe...and refused to do anything more than rewash the clothes she had and steal some from her brother. There were just some lines she wasn't ready to cross. Mercedes had taught her the trade secrets of make-up, Quinn lightened the situation with her take on a more natural look, Kurt had helped out in picking out the majority of her more high end outfits, a few dresses and clothes would no doubt look good on her... Her brother had even been there as moral support, to carry bags, and buy something else that he hadn't shown her during their excursion to the neutral territory shopping strip. All in all she called the weekend enjoyable, she hadn't seen or noticed the presence of a single kid while there.

_"When you're ready,"_ he said, holding the mystery bag above Rachel's head and out of her reach. Sometimes she regretted being so short.

But here they were still at a cross roads.

"I've decided that this project requires a bit more time! Come on down and pick out a subject, don't say who it is or that'll ruin it!"

They humored him and pulled out subjects, much less enthusiastic than Rachel.

Past, Present, Future, Love, Happiness, Sorrow, and Family were the subject that people pulled out and they looked at Will confused.

"Now, we'll still have weekly and bi-weekly projects but this one is for after regionals to prepare for the next level! The subject you pulled out is meant for you to sing about to one other person in Glee. You're not going to know who that person is until a week before it's due."

"Well... how are we supposed to pick a song?"

"You won't until one week before! You'll have to get to know everyone in Glee on a personal level, enough to be able to sing that person's life in relation to your word by the end of the semester! The week after we return from break! Onto your project for the week! We're splitting up again!"

"Boys vs. Girls?" Kurt asked a little annoyed.

"Sort of, but with a twist! Each team will switch one player! Each team will mash up a song that is normally sung by each of the represented genders."

"You mean...there will be one boy on the all girls team and one girl on the all guys team? And we have to mash up and girl and a guy song?"

"Yes!"

"We call Kurt!" Mercedes said grinning.

"Great, 'cause we want Girl Emi."Puck said, tugging her under his arm to noogie her.

The twins gave a knowing look as she pushed Puck off only to be tossed into Finn's grip and noogied just the same. It would only get more confusing the more time they spent being called the same nickname but that was fine.

"Can't you take Rachel instead?" Mercedes asked.

"Nope! We called her first!"

"But you've got both of the twins!" Mercedes protested knowing how this was going to go.

"And you have Kurt,we've got an even range...sort of." Puck said. "Besides, if we got Rachel we'd probably offend her. She's much better off with you guys and Girl Emi is better off with us. We promised no opera..."

"Her name is Emiliana guys," Emiliano said with a slight grin looking over at his dear sister.

"She's the girl version of you man and since both of you have damn near the same name, you're Emi and she's Girl Emi. Simple," Puck said. "Now about this song."

She laughed despite it all and nodded in agreement. No Opera, that means she wouldn't have to worry about Rachel's protesting but she didn't mind that either. It took about three minutes to come to a consensus that they would do a mash-up instead a normally duet song. That would be such a cop out. It only took that long because they didn't know that she and her brother played the guitar...she played bass though. Puck pushed old school rock and she pushed some more contemporary band. She won just because she was a girl and Puck agreed with her band options.

The girls plus Kurt team didn't really have that much to say about it,like minded or not it was hard to get around Rachel's need to control. They had three weeks to do this, it was due three days after their halloween assignment and a week after the rejection assignment. At the rate they were going, there was no way they were going to get this done on time considering that the majority boys team always seemed to win...

The teams convened around separate tables at lunch while it seemed that Mercedes and Kurt would finally bitch slap Rachel into next week, the table went quiet as Sue Sylvester began an announcement.

"Emiliana Romano, you're wanted in the counselor's office."

Emiliano and the rest of the guys looked at her questioningly as she grabbed her bag and stuffed the rest of her brother's lunch into her mouth.

"Hey!"

"Love you, Fratello!" She hurried off and Puck was the first to ask.

"Why?"

"I don't know..."Emiliano replied, "She never said anything about needing a counseling appointment."

"Oh well, it's probably something stupid. Girl Emi, might be badass but she's not worse than me. It can't be anything that serious."

"Yeah...we know." Finn replied.

The bell ran for the end of lunch as Emiliana made her way to her next class and caught up with the guys...everyone had this one class in common: Physics. It usually turned into her partnering up with her brother and them finishing the experiment with enough time to finish the lab report and go home with no homework... How much more could they possibly ask for?

"What happened?" He asked while setting up the data intake program.

"Oh, you know the norm."

He stopped to look up at her, "What does that mean? What did you do?"

"I put a guy's head through a glass door at Mount Carmel in my sophomore year. They've still got me seeing the counselor on top of seeing a shrink and my socialmy response felt like was too drastic."

"You put a guy's head through a glass door?"Puck asked from in front of them. "You are badass..."

"Stop encouraging her, sorella..." Emiliano started in that scolding manner.

"It wasn't my fault he thought that I was just going to let him touch me like that. He needs to learn the meaning of personal space...and sexual harassment."

They looked at her and looked at each other. "Uhm... okay."

They didn't think about it after that and as usual Emiliana and Emiliano finished early. Convening in the choir room, the boys plus Emiliana had free reign and the girls plus Kurt took the auditorium to practice, scheme,and brainstorm. The other team decided on a duet, a ballad since they had some of the strongest ballad singers in the club together. The only question was what would it be? While they were stuck,

"Well could we do Wherever You Will Go by The Calling? I always thought slower songs were easier to blend."

"Let's not do Rock, we always do something like that. We need to do something that's gonna surprise them," Artie said. "And still be good of course."

"Well... what were you thinking?"

He looked between Mike, Emiliano, and Emiliana pointedly and smirked," Well... we do have some pretty good dancers here... and we've never done a dance number..."

Emiliana blinked a little and grinned, "I think I know the perfect mash-up..."

The day ended not much longer after that. Mercedes, Kurt, Emiliana,and Emiliano headed towards the car as a vaguely familiar black Land Rover passed them. Emiliana stopped and turned to watch the car park and the passengers get out.

"What's the matter?"

"Jesse..." she started seeing the telltale curls atop his head, accompanied by two other familiar faces. His aunt and uncle William and Helen.

"Oh my, is that Emiliana?" Helen asked seeing her across the parking lot and racing around to greet her, hug her tightly and squeal a little."It's been ages since we've seen you! You two used to be attached at the hip! Where have you been?"

She gave a half smile to the woman and hugged William as well. This married couple of had known her ever since Jesse had invited her over for a project they needed to finish. They liked her, a lot and she'd always thought they were his real parents. Pulling back from their familiar embraces she stumbled back into her brother and her eyes steered clear of the bright blue ones bring into the side of her head.

"It has been a while hasn't it?" She said, "What brings you to Mckinley?"

"Oh, just-"

"Aunt Helen,we'll be late if we don't go now..." Jesse cut in grabbing hold of her arm.

"But-"

William took the cue and smiled graciously, taking his wife's hand and pulling her towards Mckinley's doors, "It's been nice seeing you Emiliana... you should come over and have diner sometime."

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Nonsense! You're always welcome to come over and I'm sure Jesse would enjoy the company, right Jesse?"

"I'm sure Emiliana has plenty of things to do and probably doesn't have the time for it, we should really get going," he said casting nervous glances at Emiliana,angry ones at Emiliano, and tugging his dear aunt along with her husband helping him. William looked at Jesse all the way to the entrance, a gaze Jesse didn't care to return. They sat down with Principal Figgins as Emiliano drove off with the rest of the crew in tact and silence took over. Vocal Adrenaline lead singer in Lima never boded well before so why would it bode well now?

You're right, it wouldn't.


	10. One Way Or Another

**Wow... it's been a while since I've posted anything. Almost a year yeah? Well I'm sorry, but freshman year of college did not allow for much creativity. But it's summer break now, finals are over and have full intention to keep up better next year and to make it up to all of you that have waited patiently, I will do my best to finish all the stories that are partly done by the end of the summer (That's by August for me.) So keep reading, keep hope alive and somehow I will finish all of them.**

**ONTO TO THE LONG AWAITED CHAPTER**

* * *

For the first time, in a long time. Kurt was late and not the type of late that would make him rush through his skin care ritual in the morning, the kind of late that was detrimental to his health. The Halloween presentation was today and their dress rehearsal was that morning. To add to this, thanks to Rachel whole "I'm going to write my own songs because I think I can presentation in Glee, he had to come up with an original song within a few weeks, the boys vs girls competition was right after regionals...He was not a happy camper.

_Damn, damn, damn!_ He'd be damned if he had to give up his solo to Rachel of all people, so he jumped out of bed, threw on some tennis shoes, old jeans, a t-shirt and rushed out of the house in some old jacket that he usually would not be caught dead in. He climbed up the stairs with his costume in hand and his backpack, up, up, up and opened the door to see Emiliano standing there about to knock on his face. A flush spread over his cheeks realizing that he looked horrible.

Emiliano smiled softly and pulled the hood of the jacket over Kurt's head.

"Come on, we still have time to get there."

He nodded slightly and scrambled into the back seat beside Mercedes and threw his costume in the back on top of everyone else's and they were off. When they arrived, the first thing they heard was Rachel's high pitched voice and silence, though she was obviously screaming at someone.

"It's left, Finn not right!"

"I'm trying..." he said softly. They arrived on stage and everyone's attention was directed to Kurt.

"Dude...what happened...you're dressed like a bro..." Noah started and the tinge on his cheeks brightened.

"Leave him be, Noah. He woke up late."Emiliana chided. "Now can we get started?"

Emiliana finished the hot tea she was drinking and tossed the cup into the nearby trashcan before taking off her jacket and rolling her shoulders.

Rachel huffed, "About time."

The practice went on fine and without interruption from Rachel, though she did take to glaring at Emiliana a lot. When they were done, they stored the costumes in the choir room, locked the door,and headed to class. On cruise control through the day, Emiliana had managed to dodge Alan again, avoid Rachel, and somehow not scream in frustration. The performance went along well they did "Thriller" and "Heads Will Roll" with Santana, Artie, Kurt, and Mercedes taking lead. The student body cheered and he hoped they would considering the amount of stage make-up they had on trying to make convincing zombies. After that, they started the hard-core practice for regionals. Fine-tuning the songs and remixing the tracks to make everything flow correctly.

It was the first time they would be delving into the darker side of music, the more somber side. It was completely unlike New Directions to start off upbeat and end up screaming, but in order to make it a change for the better, upon Emma's pointing out that they always had the same flow in the performance, they had to do it. William let them choose the songs and they chose "Diva" by Origa, "What About Now?" by Daughtry, and "The Kill" by 30 Seconds to Mars. Because of the changes to opening song, the language, and the need for sustaining vocals, Emiliana was chosen for the lead vocals. By the time they'd perfected th entrance and everything else it was time to find costumes and Emiliana was saddled with a simple white tunic. The theme this time was white and grey. The guys had on grey pants and the girls had grey and white dresses. Emiliana was the only one with a completely white dress since the store ran out of her size after the other had taken their costumes. It was after all only a few days before regional and the uniforms they'd decided on were not exactly to her liking. The costumes were a matter of necessity and desperation, not of style. But there wasn't much she could do now could she? She had a solo after all...

"You could just give up the solo if it's too much for you," Rachel commented as she looked at her costume. The fluttery white tunic thing meant for someone dancing contemporary...she never though she'd hate the color white so much.

"You couldn't wear that even if you tried," Rachel continued. "You're much too afraid and you know it."

She turned around, grabbing the costume as the rest of New Directions came to throw their costumes together for the bus ride early the next morning. She tossed it in the pile of costumes with the others and glared at Rachel defiantly. The girl knew nothing about her and she dared to assume that she had an accurate measure of her strength? HAH! Rachel wouldn't know strength if it bit her in the ass and Emilana was strength. She did not fear the simple little tunic that she would wear or the performance itself, she only feared that her body didn't know that she did not fear it.

"Rachel, move." She walked around her as the team assembled on stage and they got prepared to start their last rehearsal. Emiliano, who she would be singing with later grinned at her before disappearing behind the curtain. She breathed in and lifted her head up high before marching out and the rest of New Directions began singing. She would do this, no matter what.

* * *

_Holy shit, it's over..._ Jesse realized waking up just before the shrill sound of his alarm clock.

It was the end of the last week before Regionals and he had already packed up his things and moved thme in shifts to his Uncle's house while his parents were out working. They were driving to the sight for Regionals in an hour...He got up, got dressed and dragged his suitcase down the stairs, he drove to the parking lot of Mount Carmel where they were boarding the bus and sighed.

Getting on the bus to head there was always the worst part. His arms were sore from putting the luggage under the bus and loading up the costumes and he always had one of those crappy seats either over the tire or at the very back. He should be used to it and he wondered if he would miss it at all... Probably not. He wouldn't miss all the hardcore, run you into the ground practices they had at nights and the week before the show, or the crazy choreographer they'd had that time Shelby took a break. No, he wouldn't miss it. If there was anything he could say about New Directions, they were definitely not the automatons that Vocal Adrenaline were, they took it easy and pushed hard within the realm of safety instead of the crazy ways of Vocal Adrenaline. He doubted any of them had been on I.V. drip because of show choir practice. Jesse had been on it at least five times a year.

They knew how to have fun. That was what was missing from Vocal Adrenaline, _joy_. He should have realized that when the initiation into the Vocal Adrenaline group was to sever all ties to the outside world. Especially Emiliana. He should have known that then but he didn't and now he was trudging onto the bus without anything to look forward to.

Well... maybe not nothing.

His Aunt Helen had successfully gotten his parents to sign over the custody of him to his Aunt and Uncle and he'd moved in the night before he climbed onto the bus to go to Regionals. He'd been so excited, and _happy_ that he'd unpacked and bid is parents farewell before midnight when Helen came home from her shit, tired and hungry. They sat down together with William and had dinner. William had nearly carried Helen to bed as she passed out at the kitchen table, Jesse cleaned up the kitchen and headed to bed. In that short exchange, there had still been more love and acceptance from them than he'd ever felt at home.

"You look like you could use some sleep," He jumped at the voice, a carbon copy of Emiliana's greeting freshman year and looked up only to see no one standing over him.

He huffed sitting back, plugging in his head phones, and hoping that his mind would stop playing tricks on him. Of course there's no rest for the wicked because the bus was unnervingly quiet and he could feel the eyes staring into him from around the bus, picking at him until he opened his eyes and met the eyes of his team. He knew it was coming, he was just surprised that they'd staved off questioning him that long. He really wished they would wait a bit longer, he had a massive headache and was tired. He really should take his Uncle's policy of leading a no stress life. Really.

"Is it true you're leaving?" Tonya asked staring him down.

"Yeah," he replied with little to no emotion. He had no real attachment to the team so much as the namesake.

"Where to?" She asked.

He didn't answer that, but looked at her pointedly. "Are you asking me because I might be the competition or because you're losing me?"

She huffed and turned, he knew the answer as they all turned and continued the racket that usually plagued the bus before sitting back in his seat and falling back to sleep. He was fairly sure there were only five teams performing at Regionals tonight, including New Directions. That meant seeing Emiliana and the tall Italian that had hugged her so tightly. That meant hearing her voice grace the stage and her probably out perform their team. That meant facing her. His aunt and uncle were coming to see them and they would probably have something to say about their performance, take them out to dinner, or something and that meant having her near enough to touch. He shuddered at the thought and all his nonsensical thoughts, whirling, whirling, whirling through his head at the thought of her.

He needed the rest if he as going to put himself under that much stress... He'd fallen asleep and dreamt of her, choking him until he could no longer gasp out "I'm sorry" or "Forgive me." There was no malice in her grip just a deep, dark pain that flashed and burned in her eyes until he didn't struggle anymore and woke up clutching his neck and panting for breath.

By the time he caught his breath, they were already at site with more than enough time to check in and find their way. The loud cheering and beat boxing caught his attention from the left and he whirled to see the New Directions team getting the one in the wheelchair off the bus and cheering the tall Asian kid while dancing to some song he'd never heard before. He scanned the small group for Emiliana upon hearing her voice but couldn't find her.

Had he waited, he would've been shocked. Much to Rachel's disdain and her brother's pride as she stepped off the bus and entered the building in a blouse that was her size, albeit a men's shirt, and jeans that were a little closer to her size than normal. Jesse had not seen hide nor hair of New Directions since he arrived except for that moment, but that didn't matter. They were performing that night and he needed to be at his best for it. It was his last solo with Vocal Adrenaline after all the insanity there was nothing that was going to stop them from going to Nationals again...not even the voice of an Italian opera singer's beautiful daughter. If being a soulless automaton meant he could leave Vocal Adrenaline without a stitch of guilt, then so be it. He would get up on stage and sing in perfect pitch and fake emotion the tunes of "Highway To Hell", "Gives You Hell", and "Another One Bites The Dust." And he'd do it with all the fierceness he possessed before collapsing into a sort of schizophrenia and waiting until just a little less of himself returned because every time he got up on stage with the group he lost a little more of his heart and soul to the passionless words he sang.

_A little less human and a lot more bitter and cold_, he found that lyric particularly touching for a reason he couldn't place. There was passion in the lyrics but when he sang, he allowed himself to feel nothing. He supposed that he'd gotten used to it without Emiliana there to pull the rest of him back together.

The check in day passed in a whirl of signing forms, fixing costumes, and last run through and somehow they were in the green room for Schuster's pep talk before they split up and took the stage. Emiliana tugged on her ethereal and sheer white-cyan gown and pulled on her cloak. She could do this, right? She really was over it.

"Alright team, even if we don't-"

"Don't you think you shouldn't start off the pep talk that way?" Artie asked.

"Yeah, the butterflies in my stomache aren't happy..." Brittany said. " I think they're scared too..."

Mercedes grinned, "So when we go to nationals, we'll have to make sure to drive by Mount Carmel on the way...you know just to show off a little."

They laughed and the light started blinking signaling the five minute mark before they were on. Vocal Adrenaline got off the stage and scrambled to their seats. Helen and William grinned at Jesse in pride as he waved at them and took his seat with his team. This year, New Directions was the last group to perform. His insides were quaking with fear at the realization that he may be one of them soon and that it would only be a matter of time before William and Helen figured out that there was definitely something wrong between him as Emiliana.

Backstage and walking towards the back entrance of the theatre, Emiliana swallowed hard. She'd never felt this type of anxiety, even when she took her test to get her black belt.

"Fratello I don't think I can do this..."

He kissed her forehead, "_Pensare a nostra madre e si __volerà_, she wouldn't want you to hide. And what would dad say?"

She laughed as her father's voice filled her mind and he left her to follow the rest of the team. She took solid steps towards the entrance to the hall and breathed deep, peering through the crack in the curtains as Vocal Adrenaline took their seats and she spotted Jesse in the aisle. Emiliano went to go join the team behind the stage. She breathed in deeply and dropped the cloak from around her shoulders begging her mother and father in heaven to give her strength as the announcer began speaking. To keep her mind from running around, she did one last check in the mirror. The glitter had not come off, and shimmered everywhere it was supposed to... even her hair had decided to cooperate... now if only they could convince her heart.

"And now our final act, New Directions!"

The crowd clapped and she could feel it rising in her. As the clapping died down and she heard the voices of New Directions.

_The Queen of Hearts_

Her heart was racing out of control threatening to pound out her chest as the curtains slowly began to rise and the entire choir stared off towards the door she was waiting behind. Could she do this?

_A diamond Knight_

William Schuester had never been so nervous in his entire life. Maybe he should have just given the solo to Rachel. While she didn't have the range or the strength of voice to mirror an opera singer at least his heart wouldn't be beating out of his chest with nervousness. He could see it on the kids faces too. Rachel was smirking but angry at the same time, Emiliano looked like he was feigning a smile and the rest of group looked somewhere in between terror and worry.

_A starless night no moonlight_

Jesse hoped and prayed that maybe she was just feeling sick or she would be coming out later, and not coming out at all so he wouldn't have to see the transformation at all. But there was no use in wishing that. By the look on New Directions faces, they were waiting on someone to come out and everyone except Emiliana was there. His heart was racing like it had been during his audition, when he'd first realized that he was in love with the Italian girl.

God, it _hurt_. Because no amount of smothering or pretending would make it go away. No measure of remembering that he was a part of the well-oiled machine that was Vocal Adrenaline could quell the warmth rolling through him or the anxiety being conducted through his system, like electricity along his nerve endings.

_The world just makes no sense._

She was getting dizzy again, the rolling memories and the tears, the terror were pulling at her again. Pulling her down into somewhere deep, dark, and foreign. She couldn't breathe it was all too much, too much to handle. _She couldn't breathe_. Trying not to choke she gazed across the ramp towards her brother who caught her eye with a reassurance that almost frightened her. She didn't have a choice so long as she kept looking there, no where else. There at her brother, he family, the only thing that was still keeping her sane in this world. She could do it.

She didn't have and choice and even if she did, she wouldn't give herself one. It was either step out into the light or die and it wasn't time for her life to end just yet. _Do or die_, she chanted in her mind reeling in her panic and putting her feet one in front of the other prepared to walk down the center aisle as she'd done so many times before. Float down the ramp and up the flight of steps within the time of her solo. Easy, so long s she looked straight ahead.

Rachel smirked as their voices began to fade out and there was still no movement. Of course this meant that she'd have to take the stage in lieu of Emiliana but at least she proved to the girl once and for all that she was the best-

And then she heard it, the vocalizing that sounded like pure silk and honey echoing through the theater as she opened the doors and the choir continued providing back up to her voice. She seemed to be floating in that white tunic, fluttering along and glittering with the body glitter that lined her arms and highlighted her face. The entire crowd turned back to look at her as she floated down the ramp with even and slow footsteps towards the stage through the middle isle. Jesse gawked, William and Helen were surprised and Emiliano couldn't help but smile at her.

_That_ was the sister that he knew and loved, the one that had been hiding underneath the pain and delirium. Brenita had rushed in to grab her seat on the balcony just in time to see her floating down the aisle and she taped it. That was the woman she knew was underneath all the pain of her trauma. She'd reached the stage and flew up the ramp still vocalizing until the choir began to move in euphoric circles out across the stage to their positions and the very slow movements of them flowed into the next one and she joined her brother at center stage as he and the rest of the choir backed her up.

"_Rara belta non mai piu vista in terra, Che fea co'l suo apparir gia scorn'al Sole..."_

Her voice died down until the voices of her brother, Noah, and Mercedes toke over in a sweet harmony.

"_Shadows fill an empty heart, as love is fading._

_From all the things that we are... And are not saying._

_Can we see beyond the stars and make it to the dawn?"_

New Directions joined in and the crowd stared at the stage awestruck at the passion, pain, and emotion in the song. They skipped to the second verse and the chorus and that's when Emiliano took over belting out the bridge not really sure who he was singing to so long as they people closest to him knew what he meant. He knew it was in some way meant to reassure his sister of something she should have known and to Kurt whom would soon understand why he acted the way he did.

_"Now that we're here,_  
_Now that we've come this far,_  
_Just hold on~..._  
_There is nothing to fear,_  
_For I am right beside you._  
_For all my life,_  
_I am yours~..."_

His voice echoed out into the silence as Kurt's voice, dark and demented took over with Emiliana harmonizing with him. Emiliana shoved him, spinning him around to make him face them as they stalked him across the stage in a ghostly manner as the red spotlight bathed them in scarlet light and followed them across the stage. The rest of New Directions sang back up and Rachel glared at the trio that captivated the audience in their demented and desperate roles. She couldn't help thinking that it was her that deserved to be singing with Emiliano not his sister and certainly not Kurt. Not that they weren't talented in some respects but real talent deserves to be with real talent and it wasn't fair that she'd been sick the day they were auditioning for the parts.

_"What if I wanted to break_  
_Laugh it all off in your face_  
_What would you do? (Oh, oh)_  
_What if I fell to the floor_  
_Couldn't take all this anymore_  
_What would you do?_

_Oh, OH, Oh, OH..."_

There was a part of him that didn't want to find out how much of what she was singing was from how she really felt or how much of it was faked. Between Emiliana and Kurt, the deranged look in their eyes looked too real to be complete fake or made up. When the chorus started he was lost in the screaming, powerful voice that echoed through the theater and chilled his heart. The choir joined in the chorus with Puck playing a killer guitar duet with Artie and in the whirl and majesty of their performance he could see them both being lost to the delusional, crazy parts they were cast to play and singing their hearts of from somewhere he could never go with them, to get them, or ever dream of seeing. It was somewhere he'd been before, going back was impossible unless you meant to stay there for good, and being brought out of that deep dark spot took time and patience and expression and so much _pain._ Pain enough to rip through the fabric of time and memory to get to the present and put the trauma behind you. But wherever they were... it was so much more than where he'd been. He couldn't even begin to comfort them... But as he sang, all his life he was theirs and that meant he would try, even if it took him a lifetime.

_"I tried to be someone else_  
_But nothing seemed to change_  
_I know now, this is who I really am inside._  
_Finally found myself~_  
_Fighting for a chance._  
_I know now, THIS IS WHO I REALLY AM~!_

OH~, OH~

OH~,OH~

_NO~, NO~..._

_OH~, OH~_

_Come break me down,_

_Bury me, Bury me!_

_I am finished with YOU! YOU! YOU!_

_Look~ in... my eyes..._

_You're killing me, killing me._

_All I wanted was You~!"_

Will had never imagined that when they'd practiced the ending song that slow that it would ever sound that way. Kurt and Emiliana had sung it beautifully in practice albeit a little under the quality that could have been achieved in terms of passion. He had not expected that to happen, that the pain they were singing with would flood out of their voices and make his eyes burn with tears. He could see the judges staring at them with teary eyes, and one of them was actually crying. As the choir's voice echoed and faded out.

"_What if I... What if I... What if I...?"_

_"What about now?_"

They were done and the entire theater stood up in applause cheering, wiping their eyes. Except Jesse who'd stared up at the girl he still loved with eyes wide open and mind unable to comprehend the tight swelling and pressure in his chest. He didn't... he couldn't understand what he was supposed to take from that. It hurt, too much to say and scraped at the surface of someplace deep and dark inside his heart that he never wanted to admit was there.

It was the place his parents were and all the night he'd waited up for them only to fall asleep at the table and them still not arrive home in the morning. All the times he'd purposefully injured himself, with blades and other sharp objects, just enough to go to the hospital in the hope that his parents would come to see him, that they would come home and show that they cared even for just a little while. It was full of aching and repetitive lessons that he refused to accept when his parents sent their love in telegrams and cards,and his Aunt and uncle were the only ones to come see him. They'd come in the middle of the night when he'd almost killed himself, and when he'd been trapped in the fire it was his aunt Helen that had been standing over him, holding his hand and keeping him in touch with this world that he'd so desperately wanted to leave. It was her soft singing voice and his Uncle's rough baritone filled with concern that he'd woken up to ten days later. It was them that took him home and made sure he ate well and healed up. It had always been them that took care of him when his parents refused their title. He then wondered if maybe, just maybe, his parents would come see him before they head to Delhi. Just to say goodbye and maybe say something parent-like, like "We'll write to you" or "We'll pay for you to come visit us whenever you want" or even a "We're sorry for neglecting you, but despite that you've turned into a man that we can be proud of."

The announcer came back on stage as the team scurried backstage to scream and holler about the success, all except Rachel who looked more put out by their success than she did when she realized that she wouldn't have a leading role. Emiliano smiled as Kurt and Emiliana hugged tightly jumping up and down with happiness for their success.

"Did you see that judge! I think we made them cry!"

"I know, did you see their faces holy crap I've never felt better about performing anything!" Kurt cheered as they continued their mini celebration until William came down and hushed them all.

"Alright guys I know you're excited but the battle's not over yet. Now we're supposed to stay here until the Judges are ready and-"

"The Judges have made their decision! Can we please have all the teams on stage now?"

The five teams flooded the stage and without so much as a glance towards Vocal Adrenaline who they stood beside, or Jesse who was standing right beside her, close enough to touch, Emiliana grinned out at the crowd of eyes that looked up at them with so much anticipation. The third and second place teams were told fairly quickly, it was the first place spot that everyone was concerned with. They two teams shuffled off the stage as the announced smiled out to the audience.

"In accordance with the new rules, there are two first place winners who will face off in a tie-breaker in two months before one of the teams can proceed to Nationals in New York City..." He said, "Those two teams are Vocal Adrenaline... and New Directions!"

New Directions went up in cheers with them jumping up and down in glee. Emiliana hugged Emiliano tightly before they all cheered with joy. The theater began to empty and the majority of the people left the stage.

"Emiliana," Jesse called. She stopped, but didn't turn to face him."I hope that when I transfer, we could at least have one civil conversation that doesn't end with me having a broken body part."

She said nothing but kept walking and he sighed in disbelief turning to head down the ramp where Shelby waited for him and smiled.

"It's been a good run kid. Don't go turning soft alright?"

He laughed and nodded as he grabbed his suitcase and rolled it towards where William and Helen were standing, talking with Brenita avidly about the performances and welcomed him to the circle with open arms.

"You were fantastic, Jesse! You've gotten so good! Why on Earth weren't you singing your heart out?" Helen asked.

He chuckled, of course she'd be able to tell.

"And since when were you and Emiliana not speaking to each other?" William asked. "You two were always so close... I thought you were dating."

He flushed and scoffed. Leave it to his Uncle to be able to see that he was in love with Emiliana and have a good fix on how he felt about her for that long. Helen was about to say something when Jesse cut her off.

"Please, I don't want to talk about it... Can we go home now? I'm exhausted."

"Of course, I imagine you're hungry. So we'll see you two over for dinner later?" Helen asked turning to Brenita.

"Sure, is seven okay?"

_Dinner?_

"Yeah, that's perfect. THe food should be somewhere near done by the time you two arrive."

_Two?_

He swallowed hard with the realization that HElen wasn't speaking about Brenita and a pet, No. She was definitely speaking of Brenita and Emiliana...over for dinner? Before he had a chance to protest, William was pulling him along, Helen was moving towards the door, and Emiliana and Emiliano were heading towards them. He'd narrowly escaped a brush-in with the twins before they were out of the theater and into the car. Silence washed over the car before Jesse burst.

"I can't believe you did that," he said.

"I'm not sure what you and dear Emiliana are fighting about but you two have fought before and it turned out alright didn't it?" William said. "It's always a good step to just tell her she's right. That usually works, even if she is wrong."

"Are you implying something honey?" Helen asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

He smiled sweetly, "Not at all dear. I wouldn't know how to imply anything love."

She laughed at his silliness and leaned to kiss his cheek, "You must think you're pretty cute."

"I think I'm adorable."

She shook her head, "Ignore your uncle dear. I'm sure that whatever it is, you and Emiliana can work it out. You might as well right, I mean you're going to end up in school together aren't you?"

He sighed a little conceding the point. If only they knew exactly how much he'd fucked up then they wouldn't be saying such things. On the contrary, Helen would have slapped him into the next universe. Helen wasn't a violent woman, on the contrary she was a very reserved and peace loving woman. She'd been in the Peace Corp. for three years when she and William met in an emergency relief site in India where his team of Engineers without Borders were trying to build a new bridge and dam to keep th flood waters a bay. She'd stayed by his side even as the flood water was coming and there was no guarantee that they would make it out alive.

The dam broke and the bridge nearly collapsed as they were swept up by the typhoon, but they didn't let go of each other and wound up washed up in the middle of expanse of forest, almost washed out to sea. It took them three days to hike back to to civilization and in those three days they got to know each other pretty well. Of course when the bridge was built, the water pumped out of the city, and the town was rebuilt they parted ways... That was until they realized that they were going to be stuck together for another three years as partners when the program he was in merged with their chapter of the Peace Corps.

They'd been inseparable, a friendship that had blossomed into the love they shared today. It had taken three years of being together on assignments until William worked up the courage to pop the question. The proposal had always been Jesse's favorite part of the story.

He'd met the woman a few weeks before his Uncle was going to propose and had helped pick out the ring. He'd found out later that the ring that he'd pick out as a kid was left in the U.S. and William had proposed with a hand crafted ring of stone from the village they were stationed in. She still wore a chain with the ring on it underneath her uniform all the time. He'd never imagined his uncle nervous about anything, because somehow he'd always seemed too laid back to have any type of stress in his life, but oh had he been stressed then.

They were in Papua New Guinea and he'd been avoiding spending too much time alone with her. Now Helen had never been a violent woman, but to have the man that she'd loved so dearly avoid her rose suspicion and eventually made her angry. She cornered him one night after chasing him around camp for about an hour and they found themselves in a bit of trouble: they were stuck in quicksand with no one around to help. As they were sinking she started interrogating him.

_"Why were you avoiding me?"_

_"I want you to marry me,"_ he said and that had stopped her cold.

_"What?"_

_"I couldn't figure out how to ask you, so I tried to keep away from you or I was going to explode. Remember how I said that happens sometimes? I never want you to see me that way and that's why I kept avoiding you."_She'd stared at him in disbelief. _"So if we survive this, will you marry me?"_

_"Yes..."_She'd said.

Grinning like a fool he'd pulled the vine that was closest to him around his waist and grabbed her before pulling them out of the sinking pit. The first time they'd told him the story, Helen whacked him on the should with the sudden realization that the entire situation could have been avoided and he could have properly proposed if he would have just stopped fooling around and grabbed the vine that was virtually right next to him in the first place. William had countered that he needed the adrenaline to give him courage, he'd called it an act of self actualization not of suicidal or homicidal intentions.

It was sad that he knew their love story better than he knew his parents... He'd asked them to tell him at least a thousand times over and every time the story was more enchanting... Well, not the story just watching one of them tell it. It was even better when they were there together when they would share those secret looks, having a second conversation through their eyes in front of him, a conversation that he was not privy to. They were an enchanting couple and so in love that people usually thought they were freshly married instead of the seven years married they were.

He wondered then why they'd never had kids. Helen would have made a great mother and William a wonderful father, and they'd always treated him like a son, but they'd never had kids. As they pulled up into the driveway, William went to answer a call on his cellphone while Jesse joined Helen in the kitchen as she began cooking, offering her help to channel some of that nervous energy running through him.

"How bad is it Jesse?" She asked, turning the heat up on a skillet filled with grease. It seemed that she was set on frying fish and french fries that night. He didn't answer and she sighed.

"It had something to do with Vocal Adrenaline I take it?" He nodded. "What happened Jesse?"

"I...I-I hurt her...badly. I betrayed her in the worst way. Aunt Helen. I..." He sighed and slumped against the counter top as she tossed the fish fillet in the flour, corn meal, and seasoning mix as the grease began to warm.

William came back in to lean against the counter and waited.

"You can tell us Jesse."

And somehow, he did. It all came flowing out of his mouth like a flood and they'd said nothing while he spoke, listening and getting the feel for the whole story. He told them about the bicycle incident and the teasing, the hazing, everything and they'd said nothing watching him with those eyes that could always see through him.

"I was so ashamed of myself that I couldn't face her, I just... I didn't know what to say or where to start or how to even begin to fix it. It seemed like no what I did I only made it worse. I don't know what to do..."

Helen didn't speak but layed the batter covered fish into the grease and fries and stared into the popping pan as William got off the counter top. He could see the tension in her shoulders and waited for her to turn around and pour the scalding grease on him for his foolishness.

"Come outside with me, Jess'."

He felt the world closing in when he realized the Helen would not look at him as he followed William outside and onto their porch. It was still a little chilly but it was better than the icy cold coming from his Aunt.

"She's disappointed in me," Jesse said, not really asking as he slumped into the rocking swing. "You are too."

"She'll be okay and as for me well it's not much worse than what I've done to Helen. It will be okay, no matter how dark it seems now."

He looked up at William who stared up into the dark expanse of the sky and exhaled. He never imagined Helen and William ever fighting but he supposed that with the course of every relationship there had to be at least one fight.

"I can tell that you really do care about Emiliana, what you did is inexcusable but I undestand the why."

Jesse hung his head and in shame,"What do I do?

"You should focus on trying to get her to talk to you. She's angry, you know that but so long as she won't say anything she is much angrier than you can imagine. She's hurt so she won't be open to talking with you unless you include violence. I would say that the time between the incident was enough for her to cool off but with it being shoved in her face everyday, it isn't. It's not going to be easy but you can't be afraid to get your face shoved into wall or for her to punch your lights out because it will happen eventually. Something will happen and she'll explode but you don't want her to be within an inch of killing you. Your Aunt would never forgive you or me if that happened."

He would have chuckled but with the headache he had right then he would have preferred death to this worry that was eating him alive. In the back of his mind he wondered what they'd fought about and how William had handled the conciliation.

"How did you get Aunt Helen to forgive you?"

He laughed bitterly,"I didn't. I don't think she's truly forgiven me yet...Or maybe it's just that I haven't forgiven myself yet. It is something I will never forget and probably never forgive myself for, but... to answer your question: I groveled. On my hands and knees, I begged her to just listen to me instead of going off into that place somewhere where I couldn't follow. I held her and told her that I loved her and that I knew that she would never forgive me and I would never forgive myself, but I would try and make it up to her for the rest of our lives. It took three weeks before she was willing to even speak to me again, three more before she let me hold her without her struggling. But I was lucky that her job is so tiring and draining that she was vulnerable, that she needed me to hold her..."

Jesse watched his Uncle turn towards him with haunted eyes. He neglected to mention that the incident hadn't been more than three months prior to that night.

"It was our worst fight, and it almost killed me those weeks, having her flinch away from me or walk right past me without so much as a word or a glance. She wouldn't come home for days and there were nights that her team would call me and ask me to come to take her home..."

"I can't imagine...you two like that..."

He smiled bitterly, "Yeah, I never thought that it would happen, but...it did and all you can hope to do it move forward and pray that she'll forgive you."

Jesse sat in silence while his uncle turned to go inside, "Don't stay out here too long. Emiliana and Brenita'll be here soon enough. My advice to you is don't give up, eventually she'll wear down to listening or bashing your head in, but most likely she'll listen."

He nodded and William disappeared into the house as headlights came down the street and up into the driveway. He rose from his seat and went to greet them, their eyes met through the foggy glass of the windshield.

"Jesse," Brenita greeted happily. "It seems like forever since I've seen you. Now that we're living in the same area again, I take it you'll be swinging by for breakfast? Or you won't be since Helen and William have taken you in."

He smiled weakly, "Afraid not. Aunt Helen wouldn't hear of me walking out the door without breakfast in my stomach."

"Of course not, well you know you're always welcome." Emiliana marched up the steps without bothering to look at him as he opened the door from them to enter. She said, "Thank you" in a brittle and polite tone before he followed them in and Helen leaned out of the kitchen to speak to them.

"Do you want anything to drink?"

They said water and took seats in the living room with William. Jesse played the go between and brought out water placing the glasses on the tables in front of them and went away again as William and Brenita began to catch up. Eventually, they managed to get Emiliana to follow Jesse up the stairs and into his room, albeit she was either silent or painfully polite. Once they were out of earshot, Brenita asked the question.

"Did...something happen between her and Jesse? I've never seen them act that way around each other."

"Yeah...but they'll work it out eventually. Even if that means-"

There was a sound of clattering coming from up the stairs and they turned to look towards the stairs.

"She's going to murder him," Helen concluded. William sat back.

"Nah, maybe seriously maim him but not murder him. They'll be fine."

"You are far too relaxed about this entire situation."

Jesse watched her with eyes that spoke in volumes as she picked up the books that had tumbled off the edge of his desk and set them straight on the desk before sitting down on the floor against the bed on the opposite side of the room. He sighed and turned on the TV eventually rigging up the XBOX and handing her a controller. She looked at it and looked back at his pleading eyes and took it from him. He'd given her the first player controller and to anyone else it wouldn't have seemed like much but between them it was a peace offering, and acknowledgement that he was wrong.

Jesse _never_ gave her the first player controller, though he always let her chose what they were playing and what stage they'd be playing on. She popped in some miscellaneous fight game and set up versus mode. They played in her favorite arena, the cage and somewhere in between _Ready, Set , Fight!_ and the first solid kick she'd landed on his character, who happened to be her favorite guy character and the character she was playing's husband, she realized that he was attempting a sort of conversation with her. He was loosing on purpose. She always lost when they played together just because she had never had the time to learn how to play properly and he'd had half a lifetime to learn the combos and trick that would have killed her. She never really played video games because she was usually always in the dojo.

When his character fell to the ground, out of a life bar and the next Round started she pressed start and conceded him three whole sentences. Just three, and he thought his heart was going to pound out of his chest.

"I realize that you're trying to apologize for being a backstabber, but if we're going to play video games I'd like for you to actually play."

"I...just though it would be a good start to make you talk to me." He replied.

"Don't get too excited, I have no intention of things going back to the way things were. You fucked up any chance of that happening when you betrayed what little trust I had in you."

She pressed start again and kept her eyes on the TV and he sighed deciding to actually play since the conversation was officially over. He won of course and by the time the third round came up, Helen called them downstairs for dinner. The combo would have broken her character's neck if they were real people but they turned off the game console and came down stairs. Jesse following Emiliana down the steps and into the living room where their plates were set and Emiliana and Jesse were given seats across from each other at the other end of the table.

"So... Jesse, how do you feel about actually transferring to Mckinley?"

He glanced a little towards Emiliana who kept eating without glancing back at him.

"I'm not really sure... I'm just glad I get to be in the same school with Ana again. It was weird not having her around." He stopped for a moment. "I guess it won't be much different than being at ... when I get used to it." _When she forgives me... _is what he wanted to add but refrained from it

"Well I'm sure that Emiliana won't mind showing you around? It'll be nice to have at least one friend there right?"

Jesse smirked wryly, the only place Emiliana would show him was into a grave or worse... into a specially carved out place for him in hell. It had his name carved into it with her tears in pretty and intricate gothic writing. And he'd go there, if only she would talk to him and listen to what he had to say. There was no excuse good enough to make her understand but that's not what he wanted... He just wanted a chance to go back to the way things were and maybe a bit farther. Dinner was finished and Brenita and Emiliana left. William went upstairs to shower and Helen watched Jesse clean the kitchen for a little while before she spoke.

"I take it that she didn't attempt to kill you when you two were upstairs?"

"No," he replied. "We played video games."

Silence passed and he continued scrubbing not willing to face her, or even try until he felt her arms around his shoulders in that familiar and motherly way. He stopped washing and waited for her to speak.

"You have to fix this," she said. "I am very upset with you, but I can see that you're upset with yourself more than I could ever be. You _need_ to fix this... before it tears you apart."

He nodded silently.

"If you need anything, I'm here for you, we're here for you. No matter how much you disappoint us, you were always like a son to us and we could never abandon you."

She released him then and left him alone with his thoughts and the dishes. He stared down into the soapy water and sighed before continuing on with the chore. She was right. He had to fix this. One way or another.

* * *

Emiliana and Brenita got home and rather than asking about what had happened she kissed Emiliana's forehead and sent her off to bed. Whatever happened between them it had hurt her deeply, she watched her daughter climb the stairs to her room and heard the shower a few moments later. She was almost afraid to find out what would happen, what had happened, and what was happening now, but fear had no place in her world right now as she looked towards their calendar and saw that Emiliana's next major counseling appointment and meeting with her social worker was coming up in a few days.

Over the past few years, she'd seen glimpses of progress but there was still that darkness hanging over her. While she knew the gist of what had happened to Emiliana in that far out house in Alabama, only Emiliana knew the details and she had not opened up to share them with anyone. She knew the girl was stronger than she looked, much stronger mentally than Brenita had ever dreamed of being and she had faith that what ever terrors still haunted her, and this new pain that was slowly nibbling her away, would be conquered with the rest of her fears-one way or another.


	11. You Were In Handcuffs?

"So before we get on to the competition, Emiliano and Emiliana has put together a little routine for a competition their entering. They'd like our view on it." said at the beginning of Glee practice as everyone settled into their seats.

Emiliano grinned dressed in suave black and red with, what Mercedes would affectionately call a "pimpin' hat", tilted over his head, he set up the boombox and pulled out a chair.

"What...competition is it? You never did say..." said as he crossed the room.

"Ballroom dancing, it's to help pay for our trip to Italy over the summer." He said.

It was Niel that had brought it to his attention just before they left to go home after Regionals. The grand prize was something to the tune of 10,000 dollars or something. He'd entered competitions like this before, but he'd never won. Something always happened with the rhythm of him and his partner. Either he was too fast for her or she was too fast and they always got points off for it. He supposed it was because he was gay and the only woman he'd ever danced with, and won with, had been his sister when they were younger. He really hoped that she hadn't lost her touch and neither had he.

"You can ballroom dance?" Rachel asked. "Really?"

"Oh, so you all didn't move rooms."

They looked up to see Jesse coming in through the door and William stood immediately.

"Now guys-"

"Get the hell out of here, you bastard!" Finn yelled almost getting out of his seat.

Kurt knew this was going to end badly as the entire show choir got up in arms and Jesse didn't say a word, looking around the small room for a more familiar face than the guy sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. Looking over at Rachel for a moment, Jesse wondered why she wouldn't meet his gaze and why-

_Oh..._

He almost wanted to curse, Emiliana had been right about Rachel's loyalty, not that it mattered. He'd found himself out of affection with Rachel long before he realized he was in love with Emiliana. At least now he could charge forward without that little issue.

"What is he doing here, Mr. Schue?"

"Coming to spy on us again?" Santana asked.

"Now guys, I know how this looks but Jesse's transfer is legitimate this time."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"My parents are moving to Delhi, India. I'm living with my Aunt and Uncle now."

They shut up and looked around. Everyone vaguely knew the St. James couple, one of them used to be the school nurse for awhile and when she became an EMS personnel, she'd stopped by to give a presentation on alcohol consumption to the Seniors.

"See, go ahead and take a seat Jesse. We'll deal with getting you settled in after practice."

He nodded and took the only empty seat at the far back.

"Great, now, Emiliano you guys can get started."

He got up and peaked out the hallway motioning for someone to come down and there was a steady clack of heels against linoleum as Emiliano turned on the radio and took a seat. The sounds of Libertango by Bond came through the speakers and then she entered the room, silhouetted in a sleek red dress that made most of the guys nervous. There was an interruption and the track of "For Your Entertainment" came on. She ran into a split and from that moment they hadn't even blinked.

_So hot out of the box_

_Can we pick up the pace_

_Turn it up, heat it up_

_I need to be entertained_

_Push the limit, are you with it?_  
_Baby don't be afraid_  
_Imma hurt you real good baby_

In great sweeping movements, graceful and crisp they covered the room performing little tricks and quick steps in between the turns that had the show choir enthralled.

_Let's go it's my show, baby, do what I say_  
_Don't trip off the glitz that I'm gonna display_  
_I told you, Imma hold ya down until you're amazed_  
_Give it to ya til you're screamin' my name_

_'Sall right_

_You'll be fine_  
_Baby I'm in control_  
_Take the pain_  
_Take the pleasure_  
_I'm the master of both_  
_Close your eyes, not your mind_  
_Let me into your soul_

_No escaping when I start_  
_Once I'm in I own your heart_  
_There's no way to ring the alarm_  
_So hold on until it's over_

_Oh-OH~!_

_Do you like what you see?_  
_Oh-Oh~OH~!_  
_Let me entertain ya 'til you scream~!_

Kurt didn't think he'd ever seen something so totally amazing as Emiliana spinning up from the ground and into her brother's arms as the last chorus began to play. Apparently, the spin was too much and whatever was holding her hair up flew off and her hair whipped around her head.

_Oh!_  
_Do you know what you got into_  
_Can you handle what I am about to do_  
_'Cause it's about to get rough for you_  
_I'm here for your entertainment_

Their eyes met as they crossed the floor and the cut track was coming to an end and their final trick was coming up. He smirked a little more as she snatched his hat from his head as she slid into a spin around him, spinning out from him and back in, into a lift that stretched her out and back until the top of the hat skimmed the floor. The music ended and no one said anything as he pulled her back up and hugged her tightly.

"You're still good," He said. "Did you do something to your foot?"

She hopped out of her heels and frowned, "I haven't broken them in yet, that's all."

"We'll have plenty of time...how'd it feel?"

She thought about it for a moment, "Better than I thought."

He grinned and they turned to the amazed show choir who stared on in wonder.

"What...how?"

"If there's anyone that could be picked as the incestuous twins, it would be you two..."

It was Noah who said it and that made them laugh. Had it been anyone else, they were sure they'd take it as an insult.

"I guess that means we were believable huh?"

He nodded grinning, "Great song choice."

"When's the competition?" William asked.

"After we get back from Nationals, a few days before graduation actually." She said, "So... what'd you think?"

"I would say _jump on it, _but you're related..." Mercedes said.

"That's never stopped some people," Santana quipped. "I say Jump on it, I would."

Emiliano tensed a little as Emiliana laughed and William announced that it was time to start the competition so they headed to the auditorium and went to go change. The girls, plus Kurt, went first with a compilation of old ballads. As Emiliana pulled on the tight fitting backless dress, fishnet tights, high heeled boots, and the sparkly arm band. Somewhere in between rock and pop she grinned at her brother as the ballads ended and they got on backstage.

"We killed that," Santana said. "There's no way they're going to win this time."

"Alright let's get it going, guys!"

There was a zoning music coming and the lights shut off.

_"All my people in the crowd grab a partner take it down..._" The voices were very obviously male only.

The song changed a lot to a latin rhythm that they couldn't really place. It was familiar and it was Santana that recognized the song.

"Bailamos?" She asked incredulously.

"They expect Finn to _dance_ to this?" Rachel asked. "He can barely remember simple choreography.

"_Tonight we dance... I leave my life in your hands..." _Emiliana sang as the light came on and the entire show choir was surprised to see the guys, besides Artie, performing samba with her singing the song.

"_Now I'm letting go... there is something I think you should know..."_

_"I wanna reach for the stars~..." _The guys joined in until Puck crossed the stage and the music cycled down.

"_Hey Emi_," Puck called, grinning at her as she stole Finn's hat." You say you_ want to loose~ control...? Come over here I got something to show ya."_

She crossed the stage, walking across as he made extremely suggestive hip movements and she laughed. If any one was going to do it right, it was going to be Puck.

"_Sexy lady_," Mike joined in sliding up to the front of the stage beside her. "_I'd rather see you bear your soul."_

"_If you think you're so hot, better show me what you got._" She said and then the actual choreography started as they all sung to the end of the song

"_All my people, round and round, let me see you dance!_" They cheered, dancing on stage and grinning as the girls were up dancing too. William laughed as the song ended with them tapping the best with their feet in time with their dance steps.

"Whoo!" They cheered and almost dog piled Finn. "You did it! You didn't fall!"

He laughed as the cheers went up on stage and Rachel glared at the happy group. She'd been trying for years to get Finn to be able to do something like that, but she'd failed miserably. Of course, the guys won again and practice ended with the cheering of the other team and William pulling Jesse aside to talk to him.

"Do you... guys do this often?" He asked.

"Yep. We'll being doing the originals starting tomorrow. I think you'll have to sit these next few things out for a while, but you're welcome to try your hand at songwriting."

He nodded as William gathered them up together, "Hey, starting tomorrow we'll be writing during practice, so bring your pens and pencils, I'll bring rhyming dictionaries. The band'll be there."

They nodded and Emiliana stayed behind to speak with William.

"You were great up there-"

"You don't have to sugar coat it, cause I'm not. I'm quiting."

His eyes widened,"Wh-What?"

"I'm quitting, after I do the original song thing, I'm quitting."

She walked away then as if she hadn't just cut herself from the group that meant so much to him. He couldn't even speak as she left the auditorium to catch a ride with her brother after changing back into her normal clothes.

"You were great up there," Jesse said. "I never imagined..."

"Sounds vaguely familiar," she started and closed her locked to look at him. "So...where's the army to spray me with a fire extinguisher or throw alcohol filled balloons at me? I have goggles this time."

He bit his lip, "I'm not here to make war with you Emiliana."

"I don't believe in war," she replied. "What I do believe is indifference. So I'm quitting Glee and you can take my place. They could really use more guys anyway and I'd hate to be there when the Rachel situation blows up in your face."

He huffed and stopped her from going by cutting off her path.

"Won't you just listen to me?" Jesse asked, walking backwards as she charged towards the door. They walked that way until the got out of school. "I'm sorry, Ana! I am and I know that there's nothing I can do to convince you of how sorry I am. Please, just _speak_ to me! Please? Is there nothing I can do?"

She looked at him and he stepped back from the rage and pain lashing out at him from her eyes as Emiliano honked the horn and she turned to catch up, leaving Jesse there as Rachel came up to speak with him.

"Jesse," she started.

"You're dating Finn aren't you? Shouldn't you be catching a ride with him?" He asked as she gasped staring up at him as he turned.

"H-How did you know?"

"It wasn't hard to figure it out. I thought so for a while..."Jesse responded. "Go on, I found myself not really in love with you for a while."

She didn't say anything but she crossed the parking lot to Finn's car as Kurt and Emiliana climbed into Emiliano's car.

"Is there something wrong, Mili?" He asked looked at her through the rearview mirror as she scribbled away.

She looked up and shook her head,"Nope, nothing. But I'm quitting Glee."

He blinked, "What?"

"What?" Kurt asked. "You can't quit! Who's gonna keep Rachel from talking too much?"

She laughed, "I'm sure you can handle it Kurt. I'm not going to spend more time with Jesse than I need to...ever."

He nodded in understanding. He still hadn't found out what exactly Jesse had done to his sister, but if it was that bad he was sure she'd be taking care of it.

When they pulled up into her driveway, she stopped by his window.

"Do you want me to break his legs?" He asked.

"No," she laughed. "But thanks. I need a ride to the social workers office on Friday."

He blinked,"Sure, but what for?"

"Counseling appointment, it more or less amounts to us sitting there making small talk for an hour before she passes me off to my social worker but it's required, so I have to go."

He nodded,"It's okay. I'm supposed to go see my social worker too. That monthly check in thing."

"Yay," she said and kissed his cheek. "See you later. Don't do anything I wouldn't tape."

He laughed and she walked into the house as he pulled out and headed towards their street.

"What did she mean by that?" Kurt asked from beside him.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a smile. "It's a joke from a long time ago."

Kurt nodded as they reached their block and Emiliano pulled into the driveway. Kurt got out and turned back right before he reached the door.

"You... really were great... With your routine and in the competition."

He grinned, "Thanks. You sounded like an angel."

He flushed, "Thanks."

Kurt crossed the street with Emiliano watching him go. He smiled a little and walked into the house making not so subtle plans as he got ready to eat and go to sleep. He blazed through his homework and fell into bed.

The next day brought little surprise as they drifted through the day until Glee practice and William was passing out those rhyming dictionaries to everyone and people grouped together for a moment.

"Mr. Schue," Emiliana started. "I think I've finished one."

"Oh yeah? Let's hear it," There was short lived cheering and murmuring as she took the piano seat and set up her music in front of her as the band started off a slow jazz back drop and she joined in on the piano.

"_Sometimes... we're better off... singing the sound~... of the world ending...The memory of the earth~ still spinning beneath our feet..."_

The room went quiet as she sang on and Mercedes smiled in appreciation. When Emiliana had asked her and Santana to help her with her "jazz voice" she hadn't expected it to turn out so good. The music wound its way through the room making them remember the things they were probably better off with.

Jesse thought his heart had stopped. While he couldn't place what some of the song was about, he pegged the lines that were about him. He wished his heart would stop so he wouldn't have to hear that sultry growl of her voice and his own emotions welling up through him, with barb wire lines that tore through him and made him bleed, but he'd never bleed out.

The song ended and Will stared at her as she got off the bench.

"You can't quit," he said. "That was just too amazing."

"I can quit whatever I feel like," Emiliana said as the rest of the choir began to understand what she was saying.

"Quit? Girl Emi is quitting? Emi tell her she can't!" Puck panicked and Emiliano shrugged.

"Her quitting isn't something I can control."

"I forbid it!" Puck declared. "As an honorary Bro', you cannot quit Glee."

"Look, I never said I wouldn't still hand out with you," Emiliana said. "I just can't be in Glee anymore."

"Why not?" Mercedes ventured to ask.

"Because she can't handle the pressure of show choir-"

"For once Rachel," Santana started. "Shut up. What the hell do you mean you're quitting?"

"I'm quitting," she said sliding off the bench. "Now guys, it's been fun. Really, and it's not because of any of you, I swear. It has nothing to do with show choir at all actually. I'm quitting for my own reasons. We are still friends, all right?"

They huffed, generally looking unhappy about the decision as she took a seat. Jeese stared holes into the back of her head until the end of practice when he followed her to her locker.

"Ana," he called as she ignored him, opening her locker and getting ready go as Emiliano came around the corner to see poor Jesse trying to get her attention.

"I'm _sorry_," Jesse said. "I'd say it a hundred times over if it would make you talk to me. Just please, isn't there something that I could do, that I could say to at least make you_ look at me?_"

She turned towards him, looking right past him, "Ready to go?"

"I'd hate to interrupt the conversation..." Emiliano started looking between them.

"What conversation?" She asked and turned to leave and Emiliano glanced back at Jesse who stood there staring after her until they'd left the school and he was left alone in the hallway.

"What was that all about?" Emiliano asked as they climbed into his truck.

"It's nothing, can you still give me a ride on Friday?"

"Yeah, I'm heading that way anyway..."

He neglected to mention that he had his own date with a social worker as he dropped her off and headed home. It was one of those rare days that he didn't have football practice because Coach Tanaka was missing from school that day. He crawled into bed around the same time Jesse made it home and nearly crawled up the steps to his room and fell face forward into the blankets, promptly falling asleep and not waking up until the next morning.

* * *

Helene had come home , surprisingly, before midnight to see William in the kitchen and he looked up a nervous smile gracing his lips as it usually did when he saw her now. They stared at each other across the space for a moment in silence before he spoke.

"I made dinner," he said.

"Where's Jesse?" She asked setting her bag down and collapsing into a chair as he poured her a glass of wine.

It was all normal, all perfectly executed as it had always been. They hadn't lost their connection though it was buried underneath miles of pain and silence.

"He's asleep. He came in a few hours ago and just passed out."

"It's the stress," She said looking over at her husband.

He wasn't the only one that was stressed. She could see it in William's shoulders as he turned away from her to fix her a plate. In his smile when they were around other people, in his embrace like he was forcing himself to hold her. She sighed again as he gave her a plate and put the rest of the food up.

"You're... not eating with me?" She asked.

"No, I got called in. Something went wrong. I'll try and be back before long."

She nodded. At the last possible moment, she decided that he couldn't leave like this. She stood up as he headed towards the door and stopped him before leaving.

"We need to talk Will..."

He felt his entire body tense up and she could see it. The issue is what was he so nervous about?

"We will," he said and opened the door. He'd closed the door behind him without even kissing her goodbye like he'd done so often it wasn't that new to her.

But _why_?

* * *

Jesse got to school with a ringing in his ears that he couldn't quite stop. He took aspirin, put a bottle of cold ice water on his head and nothing helped. He didn't hear a thing any of the teachers said because of it and when he got to the show choir room he'd almost died, laying out on the floor trying to clear the ringing. Emiliano was the first person there.

"Jesse, right?"

"Yeah,"he rasped out struggling to sit up. "You're...Emiliana's..."

"Brother," he suppled. "Her twin brother at that."

He nodded sighing a little in relief as Emiliano took a seat and Jesse took one as well. They had around ten minutes before the rest of the glee club showed up.

"You have until another member of the club arrives to tell me exactly why my sister quit because of you."

His eyes widened.

"Trust me, you want me to hear it from you, especially since I know you want to fix whatever you did. If I hear it from her first, I might kill you...Do know that I have immunity in the United States and all controlled areas and they won't extradite me back to Italy if I kill you."

He swallowed hard and started talking and he didn't shut up until William walked into the room and greeted them.

"Hey guys, what's-"

Jesse choked on a half-breathed breath as Emiliano's fist connected with his solar plexus knocking the wind out of him.

"Emiliano!"

Jesse doubled over the fist and he pushed him back into the upright sitting position.

"We do not condone-"

"It's alright..." Jesse gasped out. "I deserved it."

"Yes, yes you did." He said with a smile and slapped him on the back. "Now that that's taken care of we can move on with life."

William looked between the two about to say something but the rest of the choir was coming in and it was time to give them the week's lesson. REGRET was spelled out on the board in big red letters.

"This week we're going to talk about regret. There are things that we all regret in life and I feel like we haven't talked much about it. This is a team effort, I'll be pulling a few outside judges to help us critique and perfect our vocal talent. One of whom will be Emiliana who has agreed to come back for a few hours."

"You must have Irish luck," Emiliano commented to Jesse who was still trying to make sure his diaphram was working. He knew then it would definitely be a better idea to stay on her brother's good side for the period of time between then and the end of their relationship.

"Mr. Schue, does it matter who we're teaming up with and if we over lap?"

"No it doesn't so long as the other person agrees to it," he said. "Now I want you guys to work hard on this alright? We need to put together a set list for the competition against Vocal Adrenaline."

Chatter rose and fell in the room as Emiliano turned to Jesse who wondered how many people were on IV drip that day.

"Can you breathe again?"

"Yeah," he coughed. "I'm surprised you didn't hit me harder."

"I could see you'd beaten yourself up enough and I wasn't trying to break you. Got any ideas yet?"

"Yeah..."He pulled out his phone and scrolled down to the song he was thinking of letting Emiliano hear it. "She loved this song..."

"I can see why, good choice. We'll have to change it a bit, but it works."

He agreed and they went over to the piano Emiliano took the seat trying chords to fit. Practice ended and they'd agreed to meet up later at his house and work a bit more. Emiliano headed to football practice as Jesse headed out and he hoped his Aunt Helene was home. When he arrived, there was no one there and he felt a sudden sense of uncanniness. Ever since he came to live with them, someone had always been there when he came home, or on their way guessed that even they had their busy days.

Emiliano got there a few hours later after going home to eat and shower. Jesse welcomed him and up the stairs to where his keyboard was they started.

"So why'd you do it?" Emiliano asked.

"I was stupid and desperate. I didn't... I was going through a lot of things at home and I made a choice. A bad one, but I made a choice."

"Which was?"

"Between a chance at getting my parents to notice me or being a real person. It's high school no one's really who they are in high school anyway... I was stupid and didn't realize how in deep I was in."

He turned to look at the tenor standing in the middle of the room.

"You really... miss her huh?"

He swallowed hard, "I'd give anything for us to be the way we were. She was the only thing keeping me together...I wasn't anything without her when I joined Vocal Adrenaline."

Emiliano turned a little hearing his confession. The words struck a chord in him.

"I remember her telling me she thought I was everything a parent could ever want in a child. I never told her she was what kept me everything I was. And then I fucked it up..."

"Jesse... I think we should change songs..."

He blinked, "Why?"

"Well for one, singing her favorite song would not help you at all," he started.

He grimaced as Emiliano continued, "And I think I have a better song in mind. You said that she started hating you the moment you stopped being yourself. Trying to change your style will only further her knowledge that you aren't the Jesse she was friends with. You have to go back to that person."

He nodded, they say that the first step to fixing a problem that overwhelmed you is to accept help that's offered, especially if it's help that could possibly murder you. William arrived home a few minutes after Emiliano left and found Jesse running through lyrics in the kitchen and making dinner. It was from one of his favorite bands and he'd always loved their music, but this song had a ring to it that hurt and helped a little. It was almost like the lyric writer of the band was looking in on his life and wrote a song about his relationship with Emiliana.

"Jess', you're home? Not on a date?" He asked coming into give him a hug.

"No... afraid you have to have a girlfriend to do that. I broke up with her today."

He blinked, "I would say I'm sorry but you don't sound too broken up about it."

Jesse shrugged, "She was dating another guy while dating me and I didn't really like her as much as I should have."

"Not as much as you like Emiliana?" He asked offhandedly.

"Yeah."

William was at the very least surprised to hear the admission from him but didn't comment on it.

"Aunt Helene isn't coming home tonight?"

William grimaced, "She said she didn't know-"

The door opened and the woman in question marched in bleeding from her head and collapsing into the chair.

"Honey?" William asked crossing the room to her and cursing. "Jesse bring me the first aid kit."

"I-I'm fine, it's not mine." She said wiping her face free. She was telling the truth, it wasn't her blood on her face. The question of who it belonged to wen unasked and unanswered.

"Dear God, what happened?"

"Just... a bad night." She said and got up with his help. "I just want a shower and food and sleep."

William nodded and lifted her off her feet with yelp.

"William, I can walk."

He set her down albeit reluctantly. Jesse tilted his head as she walked towards the stairs and headed up them with William watching her do. She almost _never _called him by his full name. She almost never struggled either, but when she did William would carry her anyway. He supposed his uncle wasn't kidding when he said they were still in a reconstruction period of their war.

"I'm going to check on her," he said heading towards the stairs. He reached the top of the stairs and found her passed out on the floor in front of the bed.

He lifted her up, bathed her, dressed her and slid her into bed after making sure she wasn't injured. When he kissed her forehead, she stirred and turned over. He turned off the light and went back down the steps rubbing his face as Jesse didn't look at him. He knew Jesse saw it but where he knew the origin of Jesse and Emiliana's problems. Jesse had no idea what had happened.

"So you weren't kidding..."

"No," he said. "I'm sorry we hid it from you, please don't let your Aunt find out that you know. It seems like the only time we're together without an ominous cloud hanging over us is when we're in front of other people."

Jesse nodded and passed him a plate. They ate in silence and went to bed. That night William found himself holding Helene as she clung to him in her sleep. She was having a nightmare and he rocked her gently to quiet the soft whimpering. He didn't remember falling asleep but when he woke up she was gone and the short lived dream was over.

* * *

It was Friday, Kurt realized walking into school with a renewed sense of happiness. He could barely contain himself actually. It was Friday which meant it was almost Saturday. He cheered a little, barely ducking a slushie aimed for him and grinning. _Hah! Take that you stupid jocks._

_"_Nice moves," Puck said. "Happy?"

"Very, it is Friday."

"That is true." They headed to their first period classes together and in between something about the significance of roses in Hawthorne's writing and watching the clock it was time for Glee, Cheerios and almost time to go home.

He and Puck would be doing "I Love the Way You Lie" and he wondered what everyone was going to do as he got to the gym and Coach Sylvester wasn't there. She'd given them instructions apparently but he was still confused.

"Where's coach?" He asked.

Brittney shrugged and continued to stretch and get ready for practice.

* * *

"I understand that you've quit the Glee club and are looking for something to fill the tiny little space in a void that it filled. I can tell that being a part of the Cheerios will do more than just fix what ever insignificant problems you have, but give you a status boost so you won't have to slushie the entire football team again."

The teen shrugged, "Sure."

Sue Sylvester had never been one for happiness but she felt a sick sense of satisfaction. Maybe she didn't need Aretha, she someone better... she had a Celine Dion but Italian.

Practice ended shortly with getting Emiliana a uniform and a handbook and getting her up to speed with the song they would be performing at the pep rally come next Friday. Emiliana met up with her brother after his practice ended and they were off to the other side of Lima towards the police station.

"Are you nervous?" He asked.

"No," she replied. "There's nothing to be nervous about."

He smiled a little and grabbed her hand and squeezed a little.

"You don't have to lie to me... Is it uncomfortable for you? I can imagine that it would be..."

"It's not."

He smiled as she squeezed his hand more tightly the closer they got to the station. She felt like she was feeding the wolves walking into the station with her brother to her social worker's cubicle. Didn't she know better? Of course she did, it was just that the U.S. government didn't understand.

The woman looked up, Ms. Anne Morrison. She was sweet woman that always smiled at her, she had been the one that had given the majority of the girl's clothes that she owned with the words that she would wear them when she was ready. In the years since Emiliana had been transferred into Anne's care, she hadn't pushed Emiliana to talk about her past but focused on integrating her into a normal teen's life. It was the shrink's job to make her talk.

"Emiliana, you're on time..." She said a little surprised.

Emiliana was always at least ten minutes late and walked in looking more disgruntled and angry about being there as she had ever in her entire life. This time she looked almost happy. She figured she would, who _wouldn't_ be happy with the fine example of a young man standing next to her.

"Not by choice," she grumbled.

"Mili be nice," he said. "I'll be over there with Gwen when you're ready to go."

She nodded and he kissed her cheek heading away. Most of the office looked up at her in surprise.

"So..." she asked hesitantly and little confused."You're dating?"

"He's my brother, my twin brother. You know the one I've been looking for?" She said, slipping into a chair. "We look far too much alike for you not to notice."

"I'm sorry... It's just..."

"He's hot?"

"Well yes," she said smiling softly. "And he's so bright... you two are quite opposite."

"Yeah, we get that a lot." She said. "So what's on the itinerary this time 'round?"

"Well Ms. Kaseman will be done in a moment and then you can go on in. In the mean time, I'll get this paperwork together. Standard stuff, what you're doing in school, how's home life all that."

She sighed, of course. She looked up as some disgruntled teen exited the office she would be entering soon and Anne nodded in that direction.

"Go on," she said. "It will help if you talk you know?"

She got up without saying anything as Emiliano took a seat at Gwen's desk telling her about Emiliana and filling out paper work talking with her for a while. He saw her enter the office out of the corner of his eye and hoped that she would say something... just a little bit. He knew how hard it was to go through the counseling the state set up for troubled kids in the system, but they did it with good intentions. His own sessions with the counselor went a lot smoother once the subject of his sister and what he planned on doing when he went home. It wasn't that he needed the sessions to pull himself out of his spiral down into depressing distractions, but it did help to have someone to listen besides his foster parents. His shrink had been Italian and so most of their sessions were held in Italian which made him a lot more comfortable about it. He doubted that they had a shrink that was fluent in Italian on staff but he hoped that Emiliana would find that person some day.

Ms. Sheila Kaseman was a gentle woman who was good at her job and all she wanted was to help the kids that were sent to her, but Emiliana had been the hardest case she'd ever had. She'd seemed to be a master of deflection and avoidance like she was not just avoiding questions, but the memory of the subject itself. Outside of her body image issues and obvious problems with her femininity, she seemed to be a completely normal kid. She carried on conversations with no problem but once they tried to move towards the subject of her family or what happened in Alabama she'd draw back and change the subject.

"Hello Emiliana," she greeted. "You're looking well."

"Yeah..."she said sitting down in the comfortable chair that almost swallowed her up.

"It's been a while since I saw you last, something's changed."

"I found my brother, I transfered schools, I moved, I was in the show choir for a while and I just got recruited onto the cheerleading squad."

She blinked.

"Can I go now?"

She chuckled a little, "You and I both know that's not why we have these sessions. Have the dreams stopped? You never seem to want to talk about it."

"Nice shoes," she said. _I don't want to talk about it._

"How is your brother?" She asked.

"Great, just like he always was."

"Have you told him about what happened?"

"Is that a new necklace?" _I don't want to talk about it._

She felt the doors slamming shut inside of Emiliana and saw them in her eyes. Sheila would never get anywhere like this and in all this time she had not even managed to figure out how disturbed Emiliana was about the incident. She'd never met a victim that reacted like Emiliana did.

"Emiliana," she sighed. "It's been how long since we started these appointments?"

"Almost four years."

"And in four years," she said. "You've done nothing to start healing."

"I _am _healing," she said.

"Are you?" Sheila asked. "Are you really Emiliana?"

"I am," she said with that same bravado that she'd walked into her office with their first session. They'd come a long way from then, when she'd stare off into space, small enough to curl up in the chair, and stay silent. Her back had been straight and she had the expression of a warrior though the eyes of a victim. She knew then that Emiliana would be a hard case to crack.

"I _am_," she insisted. "What do you want from me? You read the police report, everyone has. Why am I here? What is this supposed to do for me other than kill my Friday nights? You _know_ what happened to that girl."

"Because that was what the doctors said, what the police found. You didn't testify in court that day. You wouldn't speak for months afterwarsds and it wasn't until we got you into the dojo again that you showed any sign of life. No one knows your side of the story, how you felt, what _happened_?" She pressed. "That is what we're here for. It happened to you and you can't even accept that."

"I really like your blouse, where'd you get it?" _I don't want to talk about it._

"Emiliana, stop dodging the question." She said. "You won't ever get better if you can't admit what happened."

It was coming again, like a great flood about to wash out all semblance of knowledge.

"Nothing happened," she replied. "Why do I need to say it if you already know what happened. I know it happened to me, I don't need to be reminded. She and I are the same person."

"Are you telling me you have a split personality?" She asked.

"Of course not," she scoffed. "I'm crazy but not that crazy. The police wrote a clean cut story, the prosecutor revised it. That girl in their story is me. I understand that and their version of events should be good enough. It's close enough. I don't have to give another account of it. It's already on record."

"Emiliana you and I both know that's not true. You have to say it because it is your life and no one can write a better _story _about you than you can."

The tide was rising higher and higher, up above her head. The water was an angry black and when it came crashing down she didn't know if she would ever return from being washed out to sea. She scrambled to higher ground and grabbed her last minute tools. She could hear it in her ears now, she had to work fast or she would be lost again.

"Nothing happened," she said, building a wall as fast and as high as she could. She knew it was coming, but maybe if she stopped it this time, she would be okay.

She would be okay.

She would be okay.

_I will be okay._

The rain was coming down now and in its collision with the ground she could hear gun shots and screaming, blood splatters and laughing. She could hear it all again.

"Emiliana, don't do this-"

"NOTHING HAPPENED!" She screamed, rushing from the room startling Sheila.

The chair was turned over and skidding across the floor and the wave was coming down. She heard her own screaming, her crying, her **_begging _**for help, for anyone.

_Fratello, I want my brother. Emi, I want Emi. Where is my brother? Let me see my brother._

Emiliano saw the door fly open and she was screaming as the security officers rushed her. They weren't her brother and she was grabbing for a tethered rope, her brother's hand, as she washed away farther and farther and into the darkness and then it was all solitude, silence, and darkness.

"LET GO OF ME!" She screeched, throwing them off, flipping them over and tripping them.

More were upon her and her panic, blindness, and rage she'd thrown them off until Emiliano crossed the room and grabbed her. She kicked and she struggled as he held her. She kicked off the ground getting free of him and sweeping up with a crescent kick towards his head. He deflected the kick, pushing her and locking her down within his arms. Hushing her in Italian so she'd hear him and listen. So that it wouldn't be some garbled speech. So it would penetrate the blindness that had consumed her. He hoped that it wasn't too late to catch her before she was washed away forever.

"_Calmati__, shh. Va tutto bene, sei al sicuro. Nessuno gli farà del male, solo calmarsi. Non combattere contro di me__._" He said softly until he felt the fight leave her and she was slipping somewhere far away and Sheila came out of the office as the officers were trying to get up.

"_Shh__ ... Tutto qui. Shh, non fa niente. Io sono qui ... È tutto a posto_." He said softly.

Her legs gave out and he lowered her to the floor rocking her gently and turning her around to press her to him.

"Shh..._Tutto qui._" He whispered and looking up at the woman who looked down at him.

Her eyes were still blank, pupils dilated like pools of black in her face. She was limp in his arms. He'd caught her before she was too far to be saved and pulling her back from beyond the edge would take time. He hoped that his hastily fashioned tether would hold until she was on dry land and the flood ended.

"You must be Emiliano," she said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

He nodded and shifted her to pick her up, "I'll take her home now. I'm assuming this session is over."

She nodded and rubbed her face as he stood with her in his arms still staring out into nothing as he apologized to the officers, grabbed the paperwork and headed out the door. He settled her into the passenger's seat and got in to drive them home. She blinked half way there and sat up. The flood was over and she resurfaced on damp land. The screams were fading into the darkness and the sun was rising again.

When she looked out the window she saw passing light and darkness.

"Where did you go?" He asked as she sat up and looked around realizing she was in the car.

"Shit, it happened again." She cursed leaning against the window.

"What happened?"He asked.

"I-I don't know. She was pushing and I couldn't answer her and I blacked out."

"You didn't black out," he said. "You stormed out incapacitated three officers, injured three more, and almost threw the other two into the glass wall."

She grimaced," Great, their going to start putting me back in hand cuffs again."

He pulled up the driveway and stayed silent for a moment, "You were in handcuffs?"


	12. Dates, Conflicts, and Dust

**Why, yes I am continuing this story! I will finish it and hopefully it won't be the last thing I ever do. I'm trying my best to remember what's going on in the stories. Sorry for the wait.**

* * *

Days at McKinley bled together oddly. Emiliana wasn't sure if it was Friday or Tuesday most days, but there was always the constant Cheerio practice that she didn't ever skip. In fact, today was the day she would get her uniform. Apparently, she'd shown that she was a capable cheerleader and singer. When the bell rang, she reported to the girl's locker room to have Slyvester shove her uniform in her arms and order her to try it one along with the customary white socks and shoes. It wasn't the first time that she'd worn something like this, but slipping it on was like diving into a cold ocean. It was a crisp feeling that hummed along her nerve endings and eventually faded to numbness. When she came out, Slyvester nodded her head in approval and told her to get ready for practice.

She supposed she looked good... or at least she hoped she did. Her radar of good was screwed up so she'd have to take other people's words for it. Practice was over and she met Emiliano outside on the football field. He drove them home and it started all over again most days.

For Kurt, who had decided against the less than smart idea of falling for another straight jock, the day was a little different. He was hyper aware of what day, what time, and where he was in space in time. He knew when he had classes with Emiliano and tried to sit as far away as possible. Their art class made that impossible, but he managed to be as objective as possible about it, so it didn't matter. He knew that Emiliano was getting annoyed with his stuttering and avoidance of speech, but he didn't have time to explain. Instead, he went to Glee and he went to Cheerio practice as often as he needed to and tried not to think about the fact that Emiliano was one of the sexiest, probably straight guys he'd ever met.

He huffed, and Emiliano didn't usually huff without good reason. He hadn't seen his sister all day an he needed to talk, more than that he was fairly sure Kurt was avoiding him. Maybe Kurt was still interested in someone else. If so, he wondered who. If not, what the hell was the problem? Ever since Emiliana had come to McKinley and damnable Jesse had followed her, her and Kurt and Mercedes had become the best of friends... And now Emiliana was a Cheerio and left him hanging at Glee half the time with Mercedes (who was awesome), Tina (also awesome), and Rachel (who really needed a lesson in humility). He fucking hated it and it was beginning to show, he was more ticked off than usual recently.

Now he was sitting at a stupid pep rally. Fucking high school.

"Hey, Emiliano, have you talked to your sister yet?" Mr. Schue, who was vying for her to return to Glee. After all, she did have the lungs of an opera singer and of course two was better than one.

"Nope, she did say that so long as St. James is on the team she wasn't coming back."

He huffed and Emiliano smirked at that. He was glad he wasn't alone in his annoyance as Sue Slyvester appeared on the floor and spoke in the microphone. She smirked over at Will Schuester with that superior gleam in her eyes and laughed. Wouldn't this make the curly headed loser squirm? She figured so considering that not only had she stolen away his male soprano, but his newest opera acquirement... the only thing was left was to steal Aretha back and then she could sit back and laugh more than usual.

"McKniley High Cheerios!" Cheers went up but there was nothing but silence, the gynasium was darkened and the entire room sat waiting for the show.

_"I can tell you're looking at me, I know what you see. Any closer and you'll feel the heat...__Cheerios..._"

The spot light turned on and Emiliano took a deep breath in shock, his sister in the Cheerio uniform, bent at the waist slightly, hat on her head, mike coming around her cheek.

_"You don't have to pretend like you didn't notice me, every look'll make it hard to breath... Here we go... Bring the Boys Out."_

Cat calls and wolf whistles flooded the air as the music started up and it was obvious that Emiliana and the rest of the Cheerios were a lot more adept at dancing than anyone thought. He gawked and couldn't help but clap at the obvious comfort and ease that Emiliana took the stage as a sexy, cheerleader singing with Kurt as her partner.

"I'm feeling this in my heart... My heart~ BRING THE BOYS OUT!"

He wasn't sure how he should feel about Puck wolf whistling at his sister, but he supposed that a hair flip and a smooth drop to the floor warranted that from the straight man. Her tango practice showed through, and it was obvious that Kurt had been taking lesson of some kind, because he made Emiliano think that he wasn't a virgin or something like that. When they belted the notes together the entire gym went up in applause.

"_'Cause we Bring the Boys out, We bring the boys out, WE Bring the Boys Out!_"

Kurt looked out into the gymnasium, avoiding the gaze of the one person he wanted to see as the song ended and swallowed. He'd never felt so sexy than in that moment. He took a glance at Emiliana as the next song started up, one that was definitely more dance intensive and more meant to make sure people realized that he was boy. It was hilarious as no one really expected them start rapping Busta Rhymes " Break Ya Neck." Slyvester laughed maniacally at Schuester's distress. Emiliana was talented and Kurt really could dance more than the silly show choir steps he'd always been given. They looked together in sync hip hop routine that Sue had only agreed to because it was completely new. The students loved it and so long as it was censored, then it didn't really matter. They also discovered that Kurt could actually rap and pull out the base in his voice. The pep rally ended with the Cheerios headed back into the locker rooms to debrief, grab their things and get ready to head to class. Emiliano, unfortunately was saddled with Puck ongoings about his sexy sister.

"Puck, really?" He groaned. "She's my sister."

"I know... it's a little creepy since you're twins, but she's hot dude. Surely you know that."

He could only shake his head heading towards the Glee room after classes were over. He would not discuss his sister's level of attraction with Puck, especially since he had no particular interest in women that wasn't platonic. There was no Cheerio practice so Kurt was with them in his Cheerio uniform and entered to cat calls and wolf whistles from Mercedes and a heated stare from Emiliano.

"Ow, ow! Get it in, Bring the boys out!"

Kurt flushed and shook his head, "I didn't choose the song. Emiliana did."

Emiliano wasn't surprised about that either considering that his sister was who she was. When they were getting ready to go, he tossed Emiliana the keys to his car and cornered Kurt by his car.

"Take your time," she said teasingly. "Bring the Boys out, Kurt."

Kurt wasn't really sure what she meant but it was obvious that Emiliano had something important to say to him and he wasn't really sure if he was really ready to hear it.

"Uhm... is there something wrong?"

Emiliano watched him as Kurt avoided looking back at him. He was reading the obvious apprehension.

"You're avoiding me and I don't appreciate it."

Kurt winced, preparing himself to be punch when something interesting happened: Emiliano kissed him. No, kissing would be the wrong term. Kissing was reserved for silly hollywood meeting of the lips or teenage crushes. No. This felt like sex and it was so personal that Kurt was sure that he wasn't Kurt anymore. He could smell Emiliano's shampoo and soap and something else that was too delicious to give a name. His mouth opened out of shock and need to breathe and Emiliano took the time to slide his tongue along the roof of Kurt's mouth, his arm around Kurt's waist and pulling him up close to him, his other hand in his hair and holding him close.

When Emiliano finally released him, Kurt wondered if he had legs and where they went. Emiliano held him up right and moments passed in silence and more silence until Emiliano spoke.

"So, are you free Saturday?" Emiliano asked. "I'm asking because I'm assuming that you were avoiding me because of your mishap with Finn..."

"How... You're..."

"I'm what?"

"Straight."

Emiliano snorted, "Mmmm... should I kiss you again or shove your hand down my pants? Which is more convincing?"

He swallowed, "But... but... you... I don't understand."

"I want to date you, Kurt. I'd like to place a public claim on you, take you out on dates, romance you... kiss you..."

Emiliano grinned at the blush that darkened with every passing moment and kissed Kurt again, savoring the taste of cherry chapstick and smiling.

"So, Saturday?"

"G-Game..."

"After the game of course, I'm playing in it remember?"

Kurt nodded.

"Is that a yes? We'll do something casual. Get you another burger you aren't supposed to have, lots of fries and watch the stars or something. How about it?"

"O-Okay..."

"Fantastic. We'll go right after the game, kay?"

Kurt nodded dumbly. Emiliano trailed a hand across his face before heading towards his car and seeing Jesse walking past Emiliana with the distinct look of someone who had been ignored. He arrived grinning at his sister who grinned back.

"Date with Kurt?" She asked.

"Ignorant dance choice?"

She nodded and climbed into the car, "I've been accosted by three of your team members that weren't Puck."

"And Puck didn't accost you?"

"Of course not, bro' code."

Emiliano nodded and revved the engine, "What's up with Jesse? Still upset with him?"

"He told you then did he?"

He shrugged, "We talked, I punched him. We came to an understanding."

She nodded, "How macho."

He snorted, "He is sorry."

"I know, I've forgive him. Doesn't mean I want to talk to him."

"Cutting him off?"

"I didn't change my number."

"Yet you're acting like you were nothing."

"We were friends, that's it."

He winced at that but didn't say anything more. She apparently didn't realize how much Jesse really liked her, not that it seemed to matter considering what he'd done. He dropped her off at her house with the advice that she should at least hear him out.

"Let me guess, you two had a bonding moment?"

He shrugged, "A little bit. He is actually sorry."

She knew that, but that didn't really matter to her. It was still too close and she was trying to move past that moment so reconciliation (if that was to happen) would have to wait until she got a handle on it. Until then, she'd stick to looking down at her Cheerio uniform with a wry smile. Her legs really could bring the boys out.

* * *

Kurt came home. Finn was already there, Carol and his father was there and he had a distinctly dazed look on his face. Burt looked up with an eye brow raised.

"Kurt, everything alright? Finn's been telling us about your performance today..."

It was a slow lazy, dazzling smile and he flushed. Carol made a face.

"Spill, who is it?"

Kurt shook his head, "I'm going to go take a shower...I'll be back for dinner."

They watched him float down the steps, into the basement and Burt had the feeling that he would like it... He wasn't going to like it at all...When Kurt came back for dinner, he hadn't lost the positively glowing look on his face.

"Did Mr. Schue give you a solo?"

Kurt snorted, "Who cares about that?"

"Alright then Kurt, what's going on? You're-"

"He's got a date," Carol said with a grin. "Am I right?"

Kurt nodded enthusiastically and Finn looked floored.

"With _who_?"

"None of your business," Kurt said in a clipped tone and continued eating humming.

Burt made a face and cleared his throat, "Uhm... Kurt... you have a date?"

"Surprisingly."

"With a guy?"

"Yes."

"At your high school?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"After the game."

"And when will you be home?"

"Before curfew of course."

Burt sighed, "How long have you know-"

"For god sake's Burt," Carol cut in. "Just ask him what you really want to know. Who is it?"

Kurt grinned, "You'll meet him. He has to drop me off obviously. He's really nice, you'll like him Dad."

Finn didn't like the sound of waiting to find out but they all let it go. Burt had the distinct feeling that he wouldn't like this young man at all, on principle. He wasn't sure what kind of... guy Kurt was in to, but his mind went crazy with the possibilities everything from the grungy loser of Mckinley to that Jesse kid that had been dating Rachel. The possibilities were terrifying and while Kurt was much more interested in thoughts of where Emiliano was going to take him, he hadn't heard Finn's demand for answers.

"Who is it Kurt?"

Kurt rolled his eyes, "Feeling protective?"

He growled, "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I highly doubt that will happen, but thank you for your concern-"

"Kurt, at least...please? I worry about you. You're sort of like a little brother. I just don't want you to get hurt."

Kurt smiled at him and patted his shoulder, "You know him."

Finn's eyes widened, "I... know him? Like how well?"

"Fairly I would think."

"It's obviously not Puck..." Kurt made a face. "Karofsky?" He gagged and shook his head before bouncing onto his bed and opening his textbook to start work for the night.

Finn spent most of the night pondering through the list of guys he knew, trying to sift through the ones that he knew it couldn't be, but none of them seemed to be out of the realm of possibility. He decided when they were turning into sleep that he was thinking about it the wrong way. Not who would be interested in Kurt, who would Kurt be interested in... Who had he shown interest in? He had a thing for cleanliness and the like so most of the guys on the team were out... He didn't do stupidity so there went a few others. He'd said that the other would be picking him up so it had to be someone with a car...

Finn sat up out of bed and scrambled over to Kurt who was just now dozing off and shook him. Kurt groaned.

"What is it Finn? What?"

"Emiliano?" Finn asked softly. "Emiliano is the guy you're going on a date with?"

"Took you long enough. I thought it was obvious-"

"Are you sure this is a date Kurt? I hang out with him enough to think..."

"Yes Finn I'm sure."

"Well how sure are you?"

Kurt smiled and flushed, curling into perserve the warmth of the memory fluttering in his eyelids, "Very."

"How sure is _very _Kurt? Like he wants to date you and hide you or what?"

Kurt huffed sitting up and looking at the worried expression on Finn's face. Finn seemed to be telling the truth when he said that Kurt was a kind of like a little brother to him. It was sweet in the sort of needless way. He remembered why he'd crushed so hard on Finn for so long... and then Emiliano came to mind and all that was nothing but a memory.

"I'm not going to get any sleep if you're not sure am I?"

Finn shook his head.

"He kissed me, outside, asked me out in broad daylight, and told me that he intended to, and I quote, _place a public claim on me_. He even said that I had a choice of how he convinced me: kissing me or shoving his hand down my pants. Happy?"

Finn gawked and decided that he would definitely have to have a talk with Emiliano the next day. He crawled back into his own bed and turned over, flushing at the words that Kurt told him so plainly. This was going to be a very interesting conversation and it gave him a headache to think about it.

* * *

Jesse arrived home to hear the crashing of glass on the floor and angry yelling coming from the kitchen.

"Go ahead tell me I'm wrong! Tell me I'm wrong!"

"Honey, please-"

"Don't! Just... don't."

The sound of glass scraping against the floor and a curse.

"Stop it, you'll hurt-"

"I can put a bandage on this," Helen said pointedly and snatched her hand away from William. He had the nerve to be hurt about what she'd said and she turned back to cleaning up the glass she'd broken. William bit his lip and sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Do you want me to leave?" He asked after a moment and Jesse gasped. Helen stopped her eyes watering as she stood and she swallowed.

Her internal structure was going haywire, folding in on itself, but he didn't move. Just breathing through the pain, the slash of those words across her senses. She said that she wouldn't suggest it, that she couldn't. She didn't know if it made it better, or more bearable if he suggested it. Judging by the overwhelming need to curl up and die, she supposed not. How had it come to this?

"I don't know..." She said, shaking her head. "I just don't know William..."

He swallowed and took a breath, he wouldn't be the one to leave. He wouldn't be the one to end this conversation, for as long as she wanted to talk he would bear it. She could beat at him, talk down to him, smack him, punch him and he would bear it. He deserved it, it was his fault after all, no one else's fault but his own.

_I'm sorry_, the words would have done no good though. Wasted and empty on the woman he loved and was probably hating him, ready to stab him dead. He would have taken that too so long as she didn't say she wanted him to go.

"I can-"

"Don't." Helen said. "Just go."

He growled at that and grabbed her arm, turning her around and glaring down at her, "I am not cheating on you, Helen. I don't even know where you got the idea from, but I am not cheating on you, so get that out of your head. I will leave if you want me to, but I won't leave you thinking that I'm cheating on you."

"..." Helen swallowed but didn't look at him, not really hearing him, not really caring anymore. It was so dark, pulling her down. He let out a breath and pulled her into his arms to squeeze her.

"I know I hurt you... I know that and more than anything I wish I could take it back, but please... please Helen believe me when I say I could never cheat on you. I love you and if you want me to go, I will but that won't stop me from loving you, okay?"

She shook her head, pushing her way out of his eyes and streaking towards the stairs, not bothering to register Jesse standing there as she rushed up the stairs. William sighed watching her go, wanting to go after her but knowing that wasn't an option. How had it gotten that bad? It had started off as a question of what she wanted for dinner and blew up into her suggestion that he should get a mistress. He missed what she'd said and it had only made it worse. He glowered at his phone as Jesse walked into the kitchen and bit his lip.

"Are you okay?"

"Go check on her."

Jesse nodded and headed up the stairs to hear Helen behind the closed bathroom door weeping. He winced at the sound of tears and ache coming from behind the door and knew that the feud wasn't over as he headed down the stairs while William made dinner.

"Are you leaving?"

He took a breath and shrugged, "I don't know if that would do any good..."

Helen didn't come down for dinner, nor did he see her for the rest of the night as he made himself comfortable on the couch. He heard her move around eleven that night. She came down the stairs in her EMT gear, suited up and walked through the kitchen to pack a quick breakfast before heading towards the door. She stopped to look through the darkness at the form she expected to be sleeping, let out a short gasp and headed out the door. He shook his head as the door closed. Something would have to give.

* * *

Jesse decided that he wasn't going to wait for something to give. He was tired of getting the silent treatment, getting ignored. He'd rather have her yelling at him than brushing him off, at least then he would know where he stood. Thus when he found her at the end of the day, no practice for either of them. He seized his oppurtunity by the arm and pulled. She struggled against his incessant pulling and he didn't bother to humor her as they headed towards the auditorium. The speakers were set up and the sound crew was there waiting for them. He wouldn't let her talk him out of something he already feared doing. After all her resistance was only half hearted, and his drive was 150% in overdrive. There was no way in hell she would get away from him this time.

When they arrived on stage, her shoes were soft and stumbling across the stage and she pulled him around to face her.

"What the hell is your problem, St. James?"

_Words_, that's a good start.

"You've been avoiding me since I came here."

"Well I was avoiding you before I came here, "She snorted. "What the hell made you think that would change? Let me go!"

She ripped her hand from his grasp and he stopped her from leaving, blocking her exit.

"I thought you'd at least let me-"

"What do you expect me to do when you're still in love and in a relationship with Rachel? Sorry to say but I have no interest in being someone's friend if they won't even listen to me!"

"I'm not in love or in a relationship with Rachel. And I don't want to be just friends with you anymore! I never have, goddamnit! Weren't you even listening to me?"

"You're full of shit and I'm going home," before she could take a step the bass of "Another One Bites the Dust" played from the speaker and he caught her hand, willing her to listen. She glared at him noticing a set up when she saw it.

"I'm not lying, Ana."

She glared at him, "You don't get to call me that. You don't get to do this to me."

He raised an eyebrow and pulled her across the floor and up against him, staring her down with defiance.

"Does it feel like I'm giving you a choice?"

"Do I look like I'm a giving you a choice?"

"I'm not letting go."

She huffed and push at his shoulders only to be manipulated into a pseudo dance step. How the fuck did he learn the tango so quickly?

"Dance with me," he pleaded. "And I'll explain everything."

"I hate you St. James, and I don't want to hear it."

She twirled out, up and back against him gasping at the passion that she hadn't seen since freshman year, blazing out at her. He was almost human.

"I'm not the same anymore... I would have thought you would have noticed the change."

"Oh yeah? Did Rachel finally give you back your dick?"

He blinked, guiding her across the stage floor at a quick pace to match the song. He figured the song matched them perfectly and was willing to bet she felt it too.

"I broke up with her," he said. "She was cheating on me with Finn."

She blinked, "And when I told you this you said-"

"I'm sorry, Ana... I was stupid and delusional... Not anymore."

She stepped back as the words of that damned song poured out of his mouth, "_Are you ready? Are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat? Out of the doorway the bullets rip-ah~... to the sound of the beat. Yeah~..._"

The steps followed and she glared, "Another one bites the dust."

She shifted her weight and regarded, challenging him as she stepped forward and countering his act of attempted reconcilation with all the anger she had never unleashed before... and it still wasn't all of it. He almost tripped at the fast pace and when he fell she towered over him, even as he unleashed his anger as well.

"HOW DO YOU THINK I'M GONNA GET ALONG, WITHOUT YOU WHEN YOU'RE GONE? YOU TOOK ME FOR EVERYTHING THAT I HAD AND KICKED ME OUT OF MY HOME!"

She pushed him back down damn near screaming and marching across the stage as he scrambled back to avoid the white soles of her shoes,"ARE YOU HAPPY? ARE YOU SATISFIED? HOW LONG CAN YOU STAND THE HEAT? OUT OF THE DOORWAY THE BULLETS RIP TO THE SOUND OF THE BEAT. LOOK OUT!"

He rolled onto his feet and took her hand, spinning her out and rejoining the routine as they followed each other's steps across the stage and fought it out on an equal playing field. She wasn't in Glee anymore, but that didn't mean she'd lost her touch, and him letting go of the soulless automaton definitely boosted his performance quality.

_Another one bites the dust. Another one bites the dust. And another one gone, another one gone._

She headed towards the exit and he cut her off, walking backwards.

He smirked, "Another one bites dust."

Her attempts to get away or side step him had him taking her hand and spinning her into him, she struggled but on basis of trainning fell into step with him. She hated it.

"There are plenty of ways you can hurt a man and bring him to the ground. You can beat him you can cheat him you can treat him bad and leave him when he's down."

"But I'm ready, I'm ready. yes, I'm ready for you. I'm standin' on my own two feet. Out of the door way the bullets rip, repeating to the sound of the beat. Oh~ yeah~...

_Another one bites the dust... Another one bites the dust._

"Hey I'm gonna get you too."

"STOP!"

The song ended and she finally got free of him, glaring at him as he stared at her.

"You... can't do this to me. You can't! You're the one who broke this-"

"And I'm trying to fix it."

She scoffed, "I don't give a damn. Sometimes, you just don't want anything to be fixed."

He bit his lip, taking her hands and looking down at her, "Emiliana...please... I'm not trying to make an excuses. I just... I just want you to understand..."

She looked up at him and he didn't dare look away. God, she was beautiful and wonderful and he'd hurt her so badly. It felt like an eternity before she took a seat on the edge of the auditorium.

"I'm listening."

Jesse felt the breath he didn't know he was holding and took a seat beside her.

"But Jesse," she said. "If you're bullshitting me, I'll kick your ass."

He smiled at that and promised that he would bullshit her, starting from the beginning with the fire and middle school, high school, his father, his mother, everything. When he was done she looked at him with a light in her eyes that he couldn't place. She nodded at him.

"Okay," she said nodding and taking a breath. "Guess you're about as fucked up as I am..."

He blinked, trying to figure out what she was trying to say. She leapt down.

"I don't know if things will ever go back to being the way they were Jesse. But I appreciate you telling me the truth."

"How do you know all of that was the truth?"

"Helen told me already."

To be honest, she'd been told a lot before today, before she transferred. The fact that Jesse was telling her now was just a marker of his investment in reconciliation. Jesse was a good guy, damaged, confused, and fragile, but not an inherently terrible person. But she wouldn't tell him that she thought so, it was better to hear what he had to say on the topic. She'd been proven right (thank god for that).

His jaw dropped, "So wait, you did all of this, you knew-"

"It was less important that I knew and more important that you told me."

Jesse swallowed agreeing with that as she turned around.

"I suppose I can't keep ignoring you now... Don't think things are back to the old days though. I actually liked that skirt."

Jesse laughed, "Will you come back to Glee?"

"Never in a million years. You want me to deal with Berry? Nope. I'll pass."

Jesse nodded and admitted that Rachel was a handful, "Should I... give you a ride home?"

She shrugged, "I dunno know. How do you feel about this reconciliation thing?"

Jesse grinned, grabbing his backpack off the stage and trailing after her. She retrieved her things from her locker, sent Emiliano a text and climbed into the Range Rover she was only slightly familiar with giving Jesse directions to the house she now occupied. When they arrived, she took the time to look at him.

"Emiliano seems to think that you like me."

Jesse flushed as she pulled her bag off the floor.

"Whether that's true or not, doesn't matter. What does matter is that I'm not even sure if we'll work out as friends again... let alone anything else."

Jesse frowned not really understanding where she was gong with this.

"But we'll cross that bridge when we get there, Jess'. Try not to be to awkward about it, and if I catch you staring at me I'll hurt you."

She hopped out of the car with that and disappeared into the house as he couldn't help but stare at her legs as she walked. She filled out the Cheerios uniform nicely and he shook his head. She'd definitely did that on purpose.


	13. Son Of a Bitch

**Uh Oh, same week posting? I think that sounds like Spring Break!**

* * *

The morning came with startling clarity for Finn. He caught a ride to school with Kurt, watching Emiliano's truck pull up near Kurt's and along side Jesse's. He wasn't sure when exactly he would be able to get Emiliano alone to talk with him, but he hoped it was soon...

"Happy Friday!" Emiliana greeted, bounding out of Jesse's car all smiles and happiness, jeans and a t-shirt.

"Aren't you supposed to be wearing the Cheerios uniform?"

She shrugged, "I'll get around to it maybe."

They headed inside with Finn trailing behind the group and watching closely. He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but he would know when he saw it. Emiliana and Jesse headed off to one of their classes as Emiliano walked with Kurt to their own. Finn's class was in the same direction so it definitely made it easier to watch them.

They were close, walking down the hallway. He could almost see the tension in Kurt, looking up at the taller man and laughing as they headed in. The day continued on like this, and it was time for football practice before Finn decided he needed to speak to him urgently.

"Emi," he called, causing him to turn as he pulled on his wife beater and thermals. "We need to talk."

Emiliano nodded, "I suppose... this is about Kurt."

Finn cleared his throat, straightening up and putting on his best intense older brother look. Emiliano thought it was hilarious. "Yes."

"Is this the part where you say if I hurt Kurt then you'll break my legs? Shouldn't you say that with Burt?"

Finn blinked at his amused smile as his jersey fell into place.

"Look Finn," he started. "I'm not the kind of guy to play with people's emotions, let alone people I like. I happen to like Kurt, a lot. now, if you have a problem with me dating your brother, you might as well say. It will be duly noted, but probably won't affect my relationship with Kurt."

Finn blinked.

"I know what happened between you two before you got Rachel, so if you're worried about me being straight. I'll let you know I've never even kissed a girl that wasn't family, and I'm not particularly interested in them either."

Finn blinked, "I... just don't understand."

"Why I seem to have STRAIGHT tattooed on my forehead?"

"Well... yes..."

Emiliano snorted, "Being gay doesn't reflect in your personality. There's no "gay" type. If there was, I'm sure most metrosexuals would be in the gay category."

Finn snorted.

"I like sports and I like men. The two aren't mutually exclusive. I'm Greco-Roman, doesn't mean I want to bang, or be banged by, every guy I see. I have standards and Kurt's a good example of some of those standards. Now, let's get to practice and try not to kill Karofsky."

Finn snickered, following him out with the stunning realization that he wasn't particularly worried about Emiliano much... even knowing that the other was gay didn't change much of anything. Of course he had some apprehension to being in the locker room, but as far as he could tell, Emiliano was too absorbed in whatever he was doing to notice the throngs of half-naked guys walking around the locker rooms after practice... Or just not interested. This was definitely new to Finn and as he rode home with Kurt.

"Talked to Emiliano I see..."

"It's... taking some effort to wrap my head around it."

"Around him being gay, or him dating me?"

"Both."

Kurt shrugged, "Not surprising. What'd he say?"

"A lot of what... I hoped for."

Kurt nodded, "Scary isn't it?"

"A little."

Kurt snorted as they arrived at home and started in on the throng of homework to complete so as to not ruin the Saturday high. There would a lock in at school on Saturday night that practically everyone but Kurt and Emiliano were going to. When the game started, Emiliano took the time to steal a hug from Kurt before running out onto the field. Emiliana told him to get used to it.

"He's very affectionate," she said. "Very affectionate."

Kurt could believe that. Mckinely won the game, true to their winning streak of the year. Kurt grabbed his things as Emiliano came out of the locker room to beam at him.

"Ready?"

He nodded, not really sure how else to respond. Emiliano took his hand, interlaced their fingers and tugged him towards his car. He opened the door for Kurt and closed it behind them, climbing into the driver's seat, he revved the engine and they were off.

"So... what are you in the mood for?"

"Well... if we're not telling anyone about my dietary preferences..."

Emiliano laughed, "Extremely greasy, saucy burger coming up."

After the food was obtained, Emiliano drove a bit out of town to where they could see the stars. He helped Kurt onto the roof and crawled up behind him with food and drink in hand and laid out to stare at the stars and talk about practically everything and nothing. About Italy and childhood crushes, high school politics and experiences, plans for the future and parts of the past.

"I get the sense that you're... more experienced than I am..." Kurt said, Emiliano munched on another fry.

"Is that a problem?"

"Not if it isn't for you... I like a man who knows what he's doing."

Emiliano laughed and looked at him, "Does that mean I have your permission to mold you into the perfect love slave?"

Kurt laughed, "I don't think even you are that magical."

Emiliano laughed and Kurt shivered at the cold breeze. Goosebumps rose to the occasion and in another moment, he was swaddled in a warm blanket with Emiliano's arm around his waist, rubbing warm circles in his side. The wind fluttered around the as they continued eating. Despite the close contact, Kurt didn't feel awkward. There was something comforting about Emiliano's embrace. Around eleven Emiliano parked in his driveway and walked with Kurt across the street.

"You didn't have to..."

"It's only fair and proper date etiquette," Emiliano said. "Besides, how am I supposed to get a goodnight kiss if it's not on your doorstep."

Kurt flushed, "What if I didn't want to give you one?"

Emiliano shrugged, "Then I still get a tiny extension on our date."

That made him laugh and by the time Kurt pulled out his keys they'd made it to the driveway and Kurt stopped. Emiliano looked at him curiously before Kurt pushed him out of the way of the windows and kissed him. Arms flung around his neck, persistent, timid, and feverish lips pressed against him. Emiliano's hand stroked over his face to feel the heat there and soothed him into a steadier and deeper kiss showing Kurt that yes, he'd been right. Emiliano was much more experienced than he was. When they separated, Kurt's eyes fluttered before focusing up at Emiliano's smile and he bolted for the front door, fumbling for his front door key and calling out a hasty "Good night!" before closing the door behind him. He heard Emiliano laugh and say, "Bona Sera, Kurt" and walk back towards his house.

He walked past a quizzical looking Burt who was surprised to see him so early.

"Date didn't go well?" Burt asked on a slightly hopeful note. Not that he didn't want Kurt to be happy, but he was his only kid, who was closer to a daughter in someways and had aroused his more protective instincts more often than not. Kurt stopped in the door way and hugged his father, smelling like fast food and open skies.

"It was perfect," he said. "Night Dad."

Burt watched him disappear with a sigh, seemed like Kurt had officially started dating.

* * *

William slid out of his car, careful not to seep into the ground from exhaustion, instead he was leaking up the three steps of the porch around midnight Saturday and turning his key in the lock with the dreariness of another day. He was up for promotion-_again._William sighed as he nearly fell through the door in exhaustion, locked it behind him, and collapsed on the couch with a deep sigh. It was Saturday, which he usually had off but due to the stress of being at home and the string of problems at the company... he'd been there all day and just wanted to eat and sleep.

"Helen," he called out, tilting his head back and breathing slow. "Honey, you home?!"

He didn't hear any reply except for the door opening and the slow steps down the stairs. He didn't look up and he stretched out across the couch.

"Have you eaten yet? It's my turn to cook, right? What would you like?" He asked.

"No need, I'm going out to dinner."

"Oh?" He asked hearing her walk across the carpet. "Had a late shift?

"Took a nap."

There was something off about her footsteps: she wasn't barefoot, nor was she wearing flats. A gust of air brought the scent of her perfume and the memory of their first night out with a few friends. He shivered a little at the memory, but then she was in the bathroom and he could hear her in the bathroom.

_Click-clack...click-clack..._

She hadn't worn heels in a long time. What made that night so special? On a better thought, why was she wearing heels at all?

"Did something happen, hon? Did you get promoted?" He asked sitting up and becoming increasingly suspicious of the sounds coming from the bathroom. It sounded like she was going through the application of make-up, mussing her hair...He managed to get off the couch as she answered.

"No, nothing special. Just a night out and maybe the morning too. I'm off tomorrow after all."

He frowned coming around the corner and freezing in his tracks seeing her leaning over the basin and swallowed the collection of saliva in his mouth. _Dear God,_ he'd forgotten about that dress. The dress, he corrected himself. It was the same dress that ended them in bed together the first time. Hugging every curve of her body, a simple black and metallic gold, not the silly costume jewelry shine, one shoulder evening dress that was long enough to cover her ass, but not much longer than that. His eyes found themselves glued to her backside as she applied her lipgloss and whatever else in the mirror. He bit his lip.

"Wh...Why that dress?" He asked after a moment.

She didn't turn, didn't halt her application of makeup, "Am I not allowed to wear my clothes anymore?"

"That's not... That's not what I mean... I love that dress on you."

"Yeah, you're not the only one that will I'm sure."

He frowned at that as she stopped leaning over the basin and realized that it was those spike six-inches that he loved to see her in too... She hadn't worn those in a while either.

"What is that supposed to mean? Helen, is there something you want to say to me?"

"You're out of vegetable oil."

His eyes narrowed as she turned and he swallowed again, almost too distracted by her make-up job, the dark eyes and the sound of her phone beeping in that purse on the table. She sauntered past him in his stupor before his mind caught on.

_WHAT?_

He'd whirled around as she was on the phone.

"Yeah... yeah... I'll be ready? Ten minutes. Alright... Well, is he cute? I'm not really in the mood for nice."

She laughed as he came around the hall and she hung up moments afterward.

"Helen, we need to talk."

"Later," Helen said. "Maybe tomorrow if I feel like it."

"No," he said cutting off her path from the kitchen. "Now. What is this about?"

"I don't have time to talk, we'll talk later."

But he wasn't budging, staring her down and she crossed her arms.

"My ride will be here in ten minutes, what do you want?"

He flinched at the tone of her voice and the hard stare she was giving him. She was furious.

"Helen... what... Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what? Going out?"

"The dress... the shoes...What..."

"Well, my husband obviously doesn't want me, so I'm sure someone else will."

_WHAT?_

His eyes narrowed and grew dark. She almost faltered but hid it as she turned to finish packing her purse with the essentials: a pen, the already signed pages, lipgloss and mascara. She even made a show of putting three condoms in her purse on top of the pages and the roll up flats she'd slip on as soon as she was in the car. His eyes bulged and she could see the tenseness rise in his shoulders and he was preparing for battle. So be it.

"What...are you talking about? What the hell does that mean?"

She didn't answer him but he wasn't letting her off the hook, cutting off her attempt to get out of the kitchen.

"What the hell does that mean, Helen? Answer me."

"You're cursing at me now? Am I your slave that I have to answer when you want me to? Are you going to hit me next if I don't answer you?"

"Where is this coming from? I have never, ever laid a hand on you in anger. What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm leaving," Helen said. "I'm going to go out and have fun. Maybe I'll find a one night stand, maybe I won't, but I won't be back until tomorrow."

"The hell you are," he growled stepping forward with a menacing step. "You're not going anywhere until you talk to me. Where the hell is all this coming from? I know we've been in a rough spot, but this isn't like you-"

"How the hell would you know anymore, you don't talk to me unless it's in front of someone else! Or we're screaming? Asking about dinner doesn't qualify as conversation."

His mouth drew into a tense line as she glared at him, "How am I supposed to talk to you when you flinch away from me every time?"

His stomach flipped, he knew this was it. This was going to make or break them. He'd been avoiding this moment because he wasn't sure of what would happen. That fear was creeping back up again as her face twisted in something that looked like rage.

"So now it's my fault?! Every time I want to talk you decide something else is more important!"

"Is that what this is about? Not talking about what happened?"

"No! This is about you coming home looking guilty, not wanting to be alone with me, and always heading back to your fucking job! This is about that woman you were with in your office!"

He frowned and she hit him in the chest hard. What was she-

"Don't fucking look at me like that! I saw you! With her leaning over you like that! I saw you! You even had the audacity to come home with her perfume on your clothes!"

He rose an eyebrow in utter confusion, what was she talking about? A flash of blonde and tiny people came to mind: _Jen_.

"Helen-"

"NO!" She hit him again, pushing him out of her way. "I'm tired! I'm sick of this! And sick of you goddamnit! How could you do that to me?! How could you do that to us? You wanted children that badly that you went to her? Is that it?! I guess you really did take my advice, then huh?"

The blows were getting harder and he let her hit him and it wasn't long before she tired herself out enough that she leaned against him, sobbing. He closed his eyes against the burning and breathed in, waiting for her to speak.

"I hate you," she gasped fighting the tears. "Wasn't I good enough? I thought the sex was good. I thought we were great together...I loved you... Even though I... we... and I tried... I..."

William's eyes softened and he pulled her against him, she fought but it didn't make a difference when she gasped and stumbled. He swept her off her feet, flailing in his arms and hitting him and he dumped her on the couch.

"Let me go!"

He held her, pulled her feet off the ground and removed her shoes before pressing gently on her left ankle. She yelped and looked at him in astonishment as he pressed fingers against the joint and rotated the foot around. She was frozen, watching him work as he reached towards the side table's drawer and pulled out one of the small first aid kits to re-wrap and brace her ankle. The moments passed and passed quietly, one in calming concentration, the other in shock. When her ankle was re-wrapped, he set her shoes aside and moved to kneel by the couch, taking her hands in her hands and looking up at her.

"You're right," he said. "I have been avoiding this conversation. I have been avoiding being alone with you, but it wasn't out of the guilt you're thinking of...It was because... I..."

He sighed, gathered his balls, and went for the truth. He never expected that his aversion to speaking with her and the overwhelming guilt that was crushing him would be interpreted this way. He should have just been honest with her, he should have never said that...

"I... I was terrified that there was nothing I could say. I know it was a stupid idea to not say anything, but I figured that I would rather wait until... until you were ready, until I was sure that I could speak and tell you the truth without making it worse."

Her lips trembled but she stayed quiet as he continued o speak, their eyes meeting with an assurance of love and attention that she'd almost forgotten could be possible. She'd thought that he didn't want her anymore... that he was getting more distant from her because he was getting ready to leave all together. To have his happy white fence and 2.5 kids.

"I didn't want to make it worse, honey and I'm sorry. I just... I just couldn't speak about it until I could actually forgive myself. I wouldn't have been able to ask your forgiveness if I couldn't forgive myself."

"That...woman..."

"Blonde hair? Tall and skinny?" He asked and she nodded. "Jen. She's my new boss."

She frowned, "What?"

"She's my new boss for the project I've been assigned to."

"You..."

"I would never cheat on you, honey. It does help that she is married... to a woman and has kids."

She blinked at his wry smile and he kissed her hands gently, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the outside of her thighs and pressing her hands against his lips.

"Her perfume..."

"Her wife is a very huggy person and her kids are too. I think their little girl broke a bottle of her perfume...I got hugged anyway."

"But..."

"Honey..." He started very seriously. "Do you really think if I was getting it on at the office with some other woman, who by the way is half your size at the most, when I had a gorgeous, curvy, cooking, loving, Southern Belle at home, whom I'd pissed off, that I would stay here? Seems like I've made more of an idiot out of myself than I thought."

She was quiet for a moment as he fiddled with her fingers, all the tenseness draining out of his shoulders he sighed contentedly, breathing in her scent and relaxing. She watched him for a little while longer.

"How did...you know?"

"That you sprained your ankle? Your friends, especially Maria, are quite fond of me. I went to surprise you since I got off early and they told me that you went home with a sprained ankle and gave me a bunch of stuff that you'd left saying something about taking care of you because you won't take care of yourself."

She swallowed, "I... I told you I forgave you."

"But you were still hurting..." he said, softly. "I wanted to tell you that I'd do anything to make it up to you but... you kept flinching away from me. I was so scared that you were going to tell me that you wanted a divorce..."

She tensed at that and bit her lip reaching for her bag and pulling out the papers.

"I wasn't going to the club...Jake...from the police station was going to take me to the police station to file this."

He looked at the pages and felt his heart freeze over she bit her lip as he stared at the signature at the bottom of the page.

"I... signed them because... I thought that it would really be over... I didn't think I could ever turn them in that's why I asked Jake to come."

"...Do you... want me to sign them?" He asked. "You can have the house, and the car and-"

"I don't want you to sign them."

He looked up at her with such terrified eyes and she couldn't help but relax. He was still her William. Still hers, still that kind, sweet, absolutely silly man that she fell in love with. The earnest and guileless man she loved so much.

How could she have been so stupid...?

"Where does this leave us?" She asked after he set the pages down on the table.

"I don't know..." he said, honestly. "Where should we be?"

"Don't look so scared-"

"I am afraid. I am petrified. I keep thinking how I can't think of living without you by my side..."

She blinked in confusion, recognizing the words, but she didn't quit place them, though he was smiling, keeping a straight face.

"And I know you spent so many nights thinking how I did you wrong. And I was wrong, but I want us to get along. Can we go back? Back through time and space. Before I made those damn tears roll down your face. I should have never said those words, should have never made you cry. I should have known it would come back, and just how terrible it would be."

His expression was breaking into a smile as she giggled a little recognizing the melody.

"_Go on, now go?_"

"No, not out the door," he corrected. "Shhh, I'm trying to serenade myself back into you good graces."

She laughed again leaning forward and wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he tried to find his place in the song again.

"I would never try to hurt you with good bye, I would rather crumble... I would rather lay down and die. Oh yes for you, we will survive. WE've got all our lives to live, and all our love to give. We will survive."

By the time, she was shaking her head he was up and dancing as foolishly as possible, reminiscent of the first day of camp with a new rendition of the song. She laughed so hard her sides hurt, but it was cut short with his lifting her up, her legs around his waist and singing whole heartedly, dancing with her wrapped around him.

"I've got all my life to live, and all my love to give to you. We will survive."

She shrieked as he spun her around again, hugging her tightly and kissing her deeply. Her arms tightened around him and for the first time in a long time, they felt like they were themselves again.

"I love you, Helen, my love."

"I love you too," she said, gently as they stood in the middle of the living room grinning at each other. He nuzzled her gently. Until there was a knock on the door and he walked towards it, with her still wrapped around him.

"It's Jake," she said and he opened the door to see the man dressed in full uniform.

Jake Tallenworth expected a lot of things when he knocked on the door of houses where a domestic situation was transpiring. A battered wife, a battered husband, a battered husband, a child...what he did not expect was to see Helen in her black and gold club dress with her legs wrapped around her husband who was looking at him so cheerfully.

"Hello Officer, what can we do for you?" He asked.

"Uhm... Helen?"

"I sure hope it wasn't because of a noise complaint. I didn't think I was that funny."

Helen swatted him and slid down, careful not to put weight on her ankle as the drugs were wearing off quickly.

"Hey Jake, this is is William. William this is Jake."

"Ah... the man that was prepared to whisk my love and life away. Nice to meet you."

They shook hands. Jake looked between the two.

"I'm going to assume that everything's been worked out..."

"We'll get there," she said.

"And we'll survive..."

She giggled and Jake didn't know what the joke was but shrugged and bid the pair goodnight telling Helen that he would be on duty all night if something went wrong.

"Yes, because I intend to beat my wife after coming so close to losing her. You know Stockholm syndrome, battered wife syndrome...it's really sexy on a full-figured woman."

Helen whacked him, "William, that is not what you say to the police!"

Jake couldn't help but laugh and leave the pair in their love squabble on the porch.

"Proprety is what got us into this mess."

"William!"

He supposed that there really did exist couples like that. The squabbling didn't last long past the cop's leaving as then William decided that they were going to have breakfast at midnight and then off to bed.

"I finally get to hold you after all this time? And I'm hungry, no one's going to bed hungry."

He brought her the crutches and told her to "change out of that dress before I get handsy, please." She flushed and rejected them, crossing her legs and going for the sexiest pose she could muster while siting on the counter, twirling her hair and looking at him.

"It's been a while since we've had sex in the kitchen."

He did his best not to pay her any mind but somewhere in between dealing with pancake batter and bacon, he lost all restraint and she ended up splayed out with her dress hiked up and him thrusting into her until she was screaming in pleasure.

"OH, Will-m-more! More!"

He smothered her voice with his lips and obliged her, groaning and fighting against the desire to go immediately over the edge as she thrashed against him.

When Jesse came home on Sunday Morning, Helen was giggling in William's lap, sharing kisses in between chocolate coated breakfast. He was barechested with a few bruise spots and he ankle was still wrapped up. He wasn't sure what to say when William laughed at something Helen did and greeted him in the early morning light.

"Morning! How was it?"

"Erm... interesting. We put toothe paste on Karofsky's face...What's going on here?"

"Reparations,"William said nuzzling Helen who sighed at the closeness.

"So... the war... is over?"

William didn't answer looking at Helen for an answer who nodded and kissed him, "Yeah. It's over."

William sighed, "never underestimate the power of song."

Jesse laughed.

* * *

A few more months passed in relative peace. Kurt and Emiliano went on dates every weekend. The first day that Emiliano kissed him in public was a moment in Mckinley history followed by questions from the football team and a very brief demonstration of Emiliano's prowess at kicking ass without touching anyone. It was entertaining to say the least and Kurt had been thoroughly impressed. That had sparked some lessons in self-defense for Kurt and a lot of time after practice using the gym as a dojo.

In less than a month, they would be set to graduate and be off. It turned out that they'd applied to some of the same schools if not in the same cities which was hopeful to say the least. Emiliano still hadn't been formally introduced to Burt, but he was convinced that that could wait. Emiliano and Emiliana had won their dance competition and were making preparations to go to Italy soon after graduation. Tonight was one of those nights that Kurt felt amazing, finally being about to throw Emiliano over his shoulder. It was also something that had never happened before.

"Got ya," he teased.

Kurt squirmed against him and giggled as his lips grazed over the soft skin of his neck. They'd been play fighting for at least five minutes before he'd gotten Kurt subdued long enough to kiss him deeply against the cool locker's surface after their private. He'd been thinking about the boy's lips since he'd seen him that morning and hadn't gotten a minute of alone time since. He hated American high school.

"Mmm..._basta_," Kurt groaned as Emiliano pressed up against him.

He shivered a little at the command rolling from his boyfriends mouth, "Didn't anyone ever warn you? You don't speak in someone's native language to turn them off."

"I'm serious...I have to get home." Kurt panted as Emiliano ground up against him.

"I know," he replied. "Come on, let's get going love."

Their fingers interlaced and swung between them until Emiliano swung his arm around Kurt's shoulder to pull him closer. They made their way towards his truck when a chill ran up his spine and he pulled Kurt down to the ground with him as air exploded over their heads:gunfire.

"Wh-Wh-"

Emiliano covered his mouth and pulled him under the nearest car, a few parking spaces away from his own. Whoever it was was getting closer, had seen them coming out of the school. They weren't happy and had at the very least gun...seemed like there was going to have to be a choice made. Emiliano swallowed looking at Kurt and knowing that he'd have to compose himself to get Kurt to go along with it.

"Kurt, I need you to listen to me."

He gripped the trembling boy's hands hard as running footsteps became louder and louder, it was only a matter of time. They were getting closer and he was running out of time. He could probably fight them off, draw them away and just distract them, but not with Kurt there.

"Take my keys, get into the truck, and drive to my house. You can drive stick right?"

He nodded and gripped Emiliano's hand tightly as he put the keys in his hands.

"Good, no matter what happens. You get into that truck and you drive, do you understand?"

He nodded and Emiliano could feel the hot tears leaking from his eyes. Emiliano kissed his hard and brief.

"I won't let anything happen to you Kurt. I love you," he whispered and tilted the smaller boy's head back to kiss him deeply before sliding from under the car. Kurt felt like that might be the only kiss he'd get for a long time... maybe forever.

"Get moving," he said running in the opposite direction to draw attention.

There were four of them, four gunshots before he heard a cry of pain and the thunk of a body going down, hitting the ground. Kurt had crawled half way to the truck by then. The sounds of conflict were not lost on him as he crept around the side of a small car and climbed into the passenger seat of Emiliano's truck. Glass exploded over head, the windows were shot out and he curled down into the driver's seat, fumbling with the keys before throwing the car into gear and blazing off. Tears scalded his face as the salt entered glass shard wounds and the gunshots ricocheted off the fender of the SUV.

He heard police sirens following him until he pulled up to Emiliano's house and ran up the driveway as the police cars came up behind job, Lima police.

"Niel! Eric! Please! Open the door!" The thud of his fists elicited a not too fast response and it was Eric who answered the door.

"Kurt what-"

"Gunshots-" he panted unable to form a coherent thought as he collapsed forward, still sobbing as Eric lowered him to the ground and the police came up behind him and words stumbled, adrenaline drunk, from his mouth. "School-Emiliano-...Emi..."

"Was that boy in that car?" The officer asked.

"We've got a bigger problem right now, Niel take Kurt inside and tend to his injuries. Give me your phone and the emergency bag- we're going back to get Emiliano."

He nodded, taking Kurt from his arms and half-dragging him in the house as Eric hopped in the patrol car trying to convey the incoherent story to the officers as Niel brought him the bag.

"I've already called the hospital, they should be there soon after you...be careful." Niel kissed him goodbye.

"He'll be fine. Call Burt and tell him what happened."

With that they were on their way back to McKinley and hopefully to Emiliano's still breathing body...

* * *

"Quick, toss him over..."

"I think he's dead."

_You wish you mother fuckers._

"It's what that faggot deserves. My fucking jaw!"

He would have laughed, but it hurt too much to think about it and he was sure that he had at least a minor concussion, but he wasn't sure. He knew he wasn't the only one in pain though. Oh no, they hadn't taken him down without one hell of a fight. They'd be just as black and blue, maybe more considering.

"We'll get Kurt later, just help me with him!"

_Over my dead body..._

The sirens were coming closer as they heaved the broken body over the lip of the empty trashcan and slammed the lid shut, running off into the night with no regard for the broken moan of the body landing inside the cold metal container. The gun was gone, the bloody bat lay in the middle of a puddle of blood.

He wasn't going to die this way...and they were going to get what they deserve,right? That would be fair wouldn't it? No matter what he'd done before...he deserved to die of old age right? With Kurt? But Kurt had gotten away, and that made it worth it... Judging from the lack of feeling in him, he knew that had they caught Kurt he would be dead.

Kurt woke up screaming his panic and Niel stopped him from flailing around on Emiliano's bed.

"He's hurt, Emi-I-"

"Shhh, "Niel cooed pulling him close and stroking his hair. Burt was heading over as he calmed the boy down and he hoped that Eric had arrived.

"N-No...it's-I..."

"Kurt, I need you to breathe and tell me exactly what you're trying to say."

"I have to go back!" He shrieked, getting up but Burt was there trying to calm his terrified son.

"Kurt, sit down. It isn't safe, calm down."

"Em-Em... Em-..."

"Kurt!"

He went quiet, staring at Niel. "I need you to calm down, alright?"

He nodded as the phone rang and Niel answered. His eyes went dark, then hard, the thin tense line of his lips, the set of his jaw.

"Alright, we're on our way..."

He got Kurt into his car and drove towards the hospital and met Eric in the lobby.

"He's in surgery now."

Everything went black for Kurt, he heard his father, Niel, and Eric, nurses, the sound of a stretcher rolling, but nothing else.


End file.
